Best Short Poems for Kids- Workybooks

How doth the little crocodile

Improve his shining tail,

And pour the waters of the Nile

On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,

How neatly spreads his claws,

And welcomes little fishes in,

With gently smiling jaws!

My teacher wasn’t half as nice as yours seems to be.

His name was Mister Unsworth and he taught us history.

And when you didn’t know a date he’d get you by the ear

And start to twist while you sit there quite paralysed with fear.

He’d twist and twist and twist your ear and twist it more and more.

Until at last the ear came off and landed on the floor.

Our class was full of one-eared boys. I’m certain there were eight.

Who’d had them twisted off because they didn’t know a date.

So let us now praise teachers who today are all so fine

And yours in particular is totally divine.

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

When I was down beside the sea

A wooden spade they gave to me

To dig the sandy shore.

My holes were empty like a cup.

In every hole the sea came up

Till it could come no more.

Celery, raw

Develops the jaw,

But celery, stewed,

Is more quietly chewed.

Also by Ogden Nash: The Adventures of Isabel

A Bird, came down the Walk – 

He did not know I saw –

He bit an Angle Worm in halves

And ate the fellow, raw, 

And then, he drank a Dew

From a convenient Grass –

And then hopped sidewise to the Wall

To let a Beetle pass –

He glanced with rapid eyes,

That hurried all abroad –

They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,

He stirred his Velvet Head. – 

Like one in danger, Cautious,

I offered him a Crumb,

And he unrolled his feathers, 

And rowed him softer Home –

Than Oars divide the Ocean,

Too silver for a seam,

Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,

Leap, splashes as they swim.