Memorized rhymes and poems

[mtmynd]

This little jingle goes back to the mid-fifties and still haunts me to this day-

Yee Haw! Sani-Flush!
Clean your toilet
with a toilet brush

[Doreen Peri]

Have you all heard of Betty Botta?

I actually recited this in Baltimore recently. *rolling eyes*

Betty Botta bought some butter but she said, "This butter's bitter!
If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter!
So she bought a bit of butter, better than the bitter butter,
put it in her bitter batter, made her bitter batter better!
So 'twas better, Betty Botta bought a bit of better butter!

[hester_prynne]

Here's one my mom used to recite to me when I was little;

"Old mother hubbard
went to the cupboard,
to get her poor daughter a dress.
But when she got there
the cupboard was bare,
and so is her daughter I guess..."

Heh
H

[mousey1]

Oh hes, here's a similar naughty one I heard...

Old mother Hubbard went to the cupboard
to get her poor doggie a bone
when she got there
the cupboard was bare
and the dog had a bone of his own...

[mousey1]

I recall parts of this Walter De La Mare poem

"Someone came a knocking on my wee small door
someone came a knocking I'm sure sure sure...

That's all I remember! But I do remember the torment of trying to commit it to memory for recital at school in front of the whole damn class! Oh the terror!!! Oh the horror!!! I still get the shakes and sweats thinking about it! Me so shy. I think teachers were cruel to children!

[Scootertrash]

g
i
v
e

m
e


h
e
a
d

u
n
t
i
l
l

I
m

d
e
a
d

[stilltrucking]

And we sang
"You’ ll wonder where the yellow went
when the A bomb hits the orient"
sung to the tune of a tooth paste jingle.

[Doreen Peri]

My family had home movies of all four of us (girls) pretending to be monkeys and elephants, dancing around a little 6 inch tall blow-up swimming pool in the back yard and reciting this...

"I went to the animal fair.
The birds and the beasts were there.
The big baboon by the light of the moon
was coming his auburn hair.
The monkey he got drunk
and sat on the elephant's trunk.
The elephant sneezed
and fell to his knees
and that was the end of
the monk, the monk, the monk the monk.
That was the end of the monk."

Then of course there were a slew of jump rope jingles and also walking jingles... where you'd walk together to the beat and do a little acting out of the lyrics, shifting feet in the walking dance.

Left, left,
I left my wife and 49 kids
and an old grey mare by a peanut stand,
did I do right, right,
right from the country that i cam,
a hayfoot loft and shift, by jingo

Left, left,
I left my wife and 49 children
to die of starvation without any gingerbread
Hip, Hip,
I had a good job but I quit.
First they hired me
then they fired me,
then by golly I quit!

[Lightning Rod]

"nipple as big as your thumb
she could make a dead man come"

[Doreen Peri]

I also memorized quite a few Winnie the Pooh poems including this verse from "The Knight Whose Armor Didn't Squeak" (It's a very long poem... I only have the beginning memorized"

"Of all the knights of Appledore
the wisest was Sir Thomas Tom.
He multiplied as far as four
and knew what nine was taken from
to make eleven. He could write
a letter to another knight.

No other knights in all the land
could do the things that he could do.
Not only did he understand
the way to polish swords, but knew
what remedy a knight should seek
who's armor has begun to squeak.

His castle, Castle Tom, was set
conveniently upon a hill.
And daily when it wasn't wet
he paced his battlements until
some other night from across the land
would reach the moat and challenge him."

It goes on and it's a great narrative piece. If you like a good story in verse form, search it out and read it.

A.A. Milne was quite a versatile and talented poet and writer.

Then, of course, I also know this one...

"Christopher Robin had wheezles and sneezles,
they bundled him into his bed.
They gave him what goes for a cold in his nose
and some more for a cold in his head.
They wondered if wheezles would turn into sneezles
if sneezles would turn into mumps.
They examined his head and (la la la.. can't remember)
the rest of his body for swelling and lumps."

and also

"If Rabbit were bigger
and stronger than Tigger
than Tigger's bad habit
of pouncing on Rabbit
would matter no longer
if Rabbit were stronger."

[Jacob]

There's a hole in the world like a great black pit
And it's filled with people who are filled with shit
And the vermin of the world inhabit it

Line stuck with me after I watched the Sweeny Todd movie.