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12 Oct: Poor Old Lady by Anon

Poor old lady, she swallowed a dog.
Poor old lady, she swallowed a fly.
I don’t know why she swallowed a fly.
Poor old lady, I think she’ll die.

Poor old lady, she swallowed a spider.
It squirmed and wriggled and turned inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don’t know why she swallowed a fly.
Poor old lady, I think she’ll die.

Poor old lady, she swallowed a bird.
How absurd! She swallowed a bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don’t know why she swallowed a fly.
Poor old lady, I think she’ll die.

Poor old lady, she swallowed a cat.
Think of that! She swallowed a cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don’t know why she swallowed a fly.
Poor old lady, I think she’ll die.

Poor old lady, she swallowed a dog.
She went the whole hog when she swallowed the dog.
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don’t know why she swallowed a fly.
Poor old lady, I think she’ll die.

Poor old lady, she swallowed a cow.
I don’t know how she swallowed a cow.
She swallowed the cow to catch the dog.
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly, I don’t know why she swallowed a fly.
Poor old lady, I think she’ll die.

Poor old lady, she swallowed a horse.
She died, of course.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/poetrycompetition/article3228937.ece

2 comments:

  1. This was by far one of my favorite books when I was a child. I believe the illustrated version by Pam Adams that kept getting larger and larger every time she swallowed something else. Lol! I suppose nursery rhymes are poems, indeed.

    Just looked up on Amazon and there is a quite disturbing series of children's books with creepy illustrations that has the lady swallowing all kinds of things...definitely won't be purchasing these for my future nieces and nephews!! I tend to possibly specialize in childhood literature when my sister starts having kids!

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    Replies
    1. I need to catch up on Children's lit. We didn't read or have books growing up

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