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Times and Rhymes for Tasks and Toils
Rich man,
Poor man,
Beggar-man, a thief,
Doctor, Lawyer,
Or Indian Chief.
(We would
count the buttons on our coats, sweaters, dresses, etc., to see what the
last one would be – and that would determine who we would marry; when we
became a little more “liberated” we used it to tell what our jobs would
be!)
***
Cobbler,
Cobbler,
Mend my shoe,
Have it ready
By half past-two!
(I would
sing this to Johnny and Tina when we
would come home to our little house above Ingrid Evers’
and the Stieglitz family shoe shop and the cobbler’s workshop
in Lutjenburg, Germany – I had a fake leather dress at that time
and had the cobbler hem it shorter on his repairing equipment!)
***
Rub-a-dub,
dub
Three men in a tub –
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the baker,
The candlestick maker;
They all jumped out of a rotten potato -
Turn them out, Knaves all three!
***
Do you know
the Muffin Man,
The Muffin Man, The Muffin Man?
Do you know the Muffin Man
Who lives down Drury Lane?
***
See Saw,
Marjery Daw.
Jack shall have a new master.
Jack will earn but a penny a day
Because he can’t work any faster.
***
They that
wash on Monday
Have all the week to dry;
They that wash on Tuesday
Are not so much awry;
They that wash on Wednesday
Are not so much to blame;
They that wash on Thursday
Wash for shame;
They that wash on Friday
Wash in need;
And they that wash on Saturday,
Oh! They are lazy indeed!
(My
grandmother in Dundee, always washed on Mondays –
we had the possession of the washhouse then
because our family had lived in our little tenement the longest.
She hung the laundry out on the lines in our “drying green”,
as well as on the pulley line that rang from our “plettie”
to the tenement at the edge of our back green, or yard.
And what didn’t quite dry was hung up on the “horse” in our kitchen.
Ask me tales about the big clothes boiling tub in the washhouse some day.)
***
One fine day
In the middle of the night,
Two dead men
Got up to fight.
Back to back
They faced each other,
Drew their swords
And shot each other.
A deaf
policeman
Heard the noise,
He came and shot
Those two dead boys.
If you don’t believe
This lie is true,
Ask the blind man –
He saw it too!
(My brother
taught me this rhyme.)
***
London
Bridge is falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.
Build it up
with wood and clay, wood and clay,
Build it up with wood and clay,
My fair lady.
Wood and
clay will wash away, wash away,
Wood and clay will wash away,
My fair lady.
Build it up
with mortar and stone, mortar and stone,
Build it up with mortar and stone,
My fair lady.
Mortar and
stone will not stay, will not stay,
Mortar and stone will not stay,
My fair lady.
Build it up
with iron and steel, iron and steel,
Build it up with iron and steel,
My fair lady.
Iron and
steel will bend and bow, bend and bow,
Iron and steel will bend and bow,
My fair lady.
Build it up
with silver and gold, silver and gold,
Build it up with silver and gold,
My fair lady.
Silver and
gold will be stolen away, stolen away,
Silver and gold will be stolen away,
My fair lady.
Set a man to
watch all night, watch all night,
Set a man to watch all night,
My fair lady.
(We played
this game as a circle dance, under two leaders arches. The point was to
catch the other children by surprise as they danced under the arches.
When they were caught the leaders took them away from the other children
and whispered the secret choices – something gold or something silver –
because the children making the arch had chosen to be either silver or
gold. The silver choices lined up behind the silver child and the gold
behind the gold. When all the children were cut, we held on to each
other’s waists and had a tug of war between the silver and the gold.)
***
Old Mother
Shuttle
Lived in a coal-scuttle,
Along with her dog and her cat;
What they ate I can’t tell
But ‘tis known very well,
That not one of the party was fat.
Old Mother
Shuttle
Scoured out her coal-scuttle,
And washed both her dog and her cat;
They cat scratched her nose,
So they came to hard blows,
And who was the gainer by that?
***
There was a
farmer had a dog,
And Bingo was his name, Oh.
B – I - N – G – O! B – I -
N – G – O!
B – I - N – G – O!
And Bingo was his name, Oh!
***
Someday I’m
going to have a store
With a tinkly bell hung over the door,
With real glass cases and counters wide
And drawers all spilly with things inside.
There’ll be a little of everything:
Bolts of calico; balls of string;
Jars of peppermint; tins of tea;
Pots and kettles and crockery;
Seeds in packets; scissors bright;
Bags of sugar, brown and white;
Biscuits and cheese for picnic lunches,
Bananas and rubber boots in bunches.
I’ll fix the window and dust each shelf,
And take the money in all myself,
It will be my store and I will say;
”What can I do for you today?”
(When I was
a little girl at Hill Street Primary School in Dundee, my favourite time
was when we went to the classroom that was a little shop – complete with
tinkly bell and counters and shelves and empty packets of food and other
wonderful things. The till – or cash register – had real looking pounds,
shillings, and pence in it and our teacher would select children to be
customers or shopkeepers. The customers were given money and we thought
we were playing “shoppies” but I now understand we were learning through
drama to communicate, to be mannerly, to count and to imagine. I loved
playing this so much my mother helped me collect items for my own little
shop at home, over my Granny’s big green “kist” (or chest) as my counter.
My mother taught me how to roll up old newspaper pages into “cone” bags
that I could pour imaginery “sweeties” or candies into, as my equally
imaginary customers purchased them.)
***
He never
checked her household books,
He never criticized her looks.
He left about his petty cash,
He seemed to thrive on mutton hash.
He never took to drink or play,
Unless her mother came to stay.
He carried home the hats and veils
She purchased at the summer sales.
When smarting from a ruthless snub,
He never bolted to the club.
He paid her modiste in advance,
He sent her to the South of France.
In spring the scrubbing and the cleaning
Provoked no word of doubtful meaning.
He meekly took the largest clout,
And helped to turn his study out.
Performed each trivial task she set him –
And no-one yet has ever met him
Adrian
Porter
***
God put me
on earth
To accomplish a
Certain number of things –
Right now I am so far behind
I will never die! |
