These are two poems I heard from my mother when I was a child. These are as I have remembered them, and I probably do not remember them perfectly. Does anybody know where they came from?

#1

Fourteen, fifteen sixteen seventeen,
Seventeen Assyrian apothecaries
Saw the moon, all still,
Asleep upon a hill.
What a dish it would make.
It never would break,
What an excellent dish for doodleberries!
Said the seventeen Assyrian apothecaries.

So they each took a spoon and plenty of sugar
And went up to the moon, every little bugger.
And they rocked it this way too do lee oo,
And they rocked it that way too do lee oo,
Every little bugger eating doodleberries.

#2

Once there was an old witch.
And she lived in a wide, wide wood.
And all day long she sat in a tree
With a sword and a pistol over her knee,
And when she saw a little boy
Whose eyes were big and brown,
She took him and she shook him
And she gobbled him down
As fast as ever she could could could!
As fast as ever she could.

Dawntime dimming noonwise
Noontime dimming nightwise
Catch a moth
Catch a moth
For its yellow eyes.
Catch a bat.
Catch a bug.
Catch a beetle!



Post Edited (04-24-05 12:44)

Avoiding work as usual

I don't know where they came from but they're both very good!

The unknown author who wrote them had a genius for rhythm. They were written to be chanted. They are much too good to be lost.

Avoiding work as usual