A Long-Tailed Pig Lyrics
Long tail, short tail, no tail at all, or curly: this four-line rhyme runs through every kind of pig a farmyard could hold.
A Long-Tailed Pig
A long-tailed pig, or a short-tailed pig,
Or a pig without e'er a tail,
A sow-pig, or a boar-pig,
Or a pig with a curly tail.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/a-long-tailed-pig/
- Type
- Animal Rhymes
- Tune
- Spoken rhyme
- Best for ages
- 2 to 6 years
What Does A Long-Tailed Pig Mean?
The rhyme lists pigs by their tails and by whether they are female or male. A sow is a female pig and a boar is a male. "Without e'er a tail" means without any tail at all. The curly tail at the end is the one most children picture when they think of a pig.
History and Origin
This version is from The Little Mother Goose (1912), illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. Pigs were kept by many families, even in towns, so children knew the difference between a sow and a boar long before they learned to read.
Learning Activities
- Pig tails: draw four pigs and give each a different tail from the rhyme.
- Farm words: learn other male and female animal names: cow and bull, hen and rooster, ewe and ram.