"The Goose and the Common" is an anonymous English poem which comments on the social injustice caused by the privatization of common land during the enclosures in England.

As an orally transmitted folk poem, it is found in various forms and variations. It is estimated to have been composed in the mid to late 18th century. It is found recorded in magazines as early as 1810, with its first recorded attestation in a 4 stanza form in 1821.

The poem has had an enduring presence in English oral tradition, being often quoted or referenced in discussions and debates around inclosure, including on more than one occasion in the houses of parliament. Today, the poem is often referenced in connection to the privatization of common resources, not just land, such as seed genetics, the human genome and publicly funded research.

The poem consists of pairs of rhyming couplets, sometimes only one stanza.

The 4 stanza version most often quoted:

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose.

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine.

The poor and wretched don’t escape
If they conspire the law to break;
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back

— Anonymous, "The Goose and the Common"

The poem is also often found in a shorter forms, often one stanza only, such as: