Fun Stuff
Nursery Rhymes
The Kilkenny Cats
There were once two cats of Kilkenny.
Each thought there was one cat too many.
So they fought and they fit,
And they scratched and they bit,
Til, (excepting their nails,
And the tips of their tails,)
Instead of two cats, there weren't any.
Kilkenny and Limerick are two counties in Ireland, and "The Kilkenny Cats" is a type of rhyme called a limerick (with an extra couplet.) A limerick is a five-line poem that follows a strict rhyming pattern (AABBA). Traditionally, the first line introduces a person and a place, with the name of the place appearing at the end of the line. That place name then establishes the rhyme scheme for the second and fifth lines. Limericks are intended to be humorous, and often have a surprise twist to them, which is sometimes revealed in the last line.
Mother Osprey Poem: Two Skippers from Texas
Illustration from Land of Play, Verses-Rhymes-Stories (image available through etc.usf.edu/clipart)
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