Rhythm, rhyme, symbol, chime….the verses children chanted at play could wake the youthful ear and tease the mind. Shaped over generations, some might be called folk poetry. Their simple meter sometimes carries, at any rate, the seeds of great themes: love, growing up, death, anger, beauty....Here are a few picked up in one childhood. (Who learns these now? Who skips in the street?)
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Down by the river, down by the sea,
Johnny broke a bottle and blamed it on me.
I told Ma, Ma told Pa,
Johnny got a licking and ha-ha-ha.
How many licks did he receive?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5…
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Princess pear tree, apple tree, quince,
Went upstairs to kiss the prince,
Made a mistake, kissed a snake.
How many doctors did it take?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5...
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Paul and Lucy sitting in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G,
First comes love, then comes marriage,
Then comes Lucy with a baby carriage.
How many kisses did she receive?
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Little Miss Pinky, dressed in blue,
Died last night at a quarter to two.
Before she died, she told me this:
“Darn that rope that made me miss!”
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Blue bells, cockleshells,
Evie ivy over,
Blue bells, cockleshells,
Evie ivy over,
Blue bells, cockleshells,
Evie, ivy, over…..
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O-U-T spells out
And out you go,
Down to the bottom of the deep blue sea,
With a dirty dishrag turned inside OUT!.
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Were game-rhymes part of your young life?
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Against the ruin of the world,
there is only one defense:
the creative act.
--Kenneth Rexroth—
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MORE POETRY:
CLASSIC POETRY GROUP
Indigo Kalliope: Poems From the Left [archive]
RuleOfLaw Poems
MORE LITERARY DIARIES:
Readers and Booklovers
Bookflurries-Bookchat
Contemporary Fiction Views
Language of the Night
LGBT Literature
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club
What Are You Reading?
Write On!
You Can't Read That!
Young People's Pavilion