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.


Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick;
Jack jumped over
the flashlight.


Little Miss Muffet
sat on a tuffet,
eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider
who sat down beside her,
and frightened the living daylights out of her.





*A National Book Award winning poet urged teachers who attended her workshop to tell their young students a poem not only needn’t, but shouldn’t rhyme.