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BABY’S FIRST NURSERY UNRHYMES*



One, two,
buckle my seatbelt.
Three, four,
shut the window.
Five, six,
pick up toys.
Seven, eight,
put them away.
Nine, ten,
a big fat rooster.


Rain, rain,
go away.
Come again
some other time.


A diller a dollar
a ten-o’clock scholar!
What makes you come so soon?
You used to come at ten o’clock,
but now you come at twelve.


Yankee doodle went to town
riding on a pony.
Stuck a feather in his cap
and called it an egg noodle.


Hey! diddle, diddle,
the cat and the banjo,
the cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
to see such sport,
and the dish ran away with the knife.


Jack and Jill went up the hill
to fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown.
And then Jill fell down, too.


*A National Book Award winning poet's response (in a Q and A) to a teacher who wanted to introduce her class to poetry writing: Tell them a poem shouldn't rhyme.