Nursery Poem Hippy Hi Hoppy

Hippy-Hi-Hoppy, the big fat toad,

Greeted his friends at a turn of the road.

Said he to the snail, “Here’s a ring for your tail

If you’ll go into town for my afternoon mail.”

Said he to the rat, “I have talked with the cat;

And she’ll nab you so quick you won’t know where you’re at.”

Said he to the lizard, “I’m really no wizard,

But I’ll show you a trick that will tickle your gizzard.”

Said he to the lark, “When it gets fairly dark

We’ll chase the mosquitoes in Peek-a-Boo Park.”

Said he to the owl, “If it were not for your scowl

I’d like you as well as most any wild fowl.”

Said he to the wren, “You’re tiny, but then

I’ll marry you quick, if you’ll only say when.”

From Hippy Hi Hoppy Nursery Poem to More Mother Goose Rhymes

“My dear little Blossoms, there are now in this world, and always will be, a great many grannies beside myself, both in petticoats and pantaloons, some a deal younger, to be sure, but all monstrous wise and of my own family name.

These old women, who never had chick or child of their own, but who always know how to bring up other people's children, will tell you with long faces that my enchanting, quieting, soothing volume, my all-sufficient anodyne for cross, peevish, won't-be-comforted little bairns, ought be laid aside for more learned books, such as they could select and publish.

Fudge! I tell you that all their batterings can't deface my beauties, nor their wise prattlings equal my wiser prattlings; and all imitators of my refreshing songs might as well write another Billy Shakespeare as another Mother Goose—we two great poets were born together, and shall go out of the world together.

No, no, my melodies will never die, while nurses sing, or babies cry.

Excerpt From: "The Only True Mother Goose Melodies", Munroe & Francis, Boston. 1833

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Nursery Poem Hippy Hi Hoppy