As I Came Out of Grundy Greet Lyrics
The speaker comes out of Grundy Greet and meets four cats marching down the street: a long grey thin one, a round sleek fat one, a dapper one with bells on its tail and one with big yellow eyes. The poem ends where it began.
As I Came Out of Grundy Greet
As I came out of Grundy Greet
Four cats were marching down the street
One was long and gray and thin
With lots of whiskers on his chin,
And one was round and sleek and fat
(He must have been a butcher's cat).
One was dapper, slight, and frail,
With bells and tassels on his tail,
And one had starey yellow eyes
Almost as big as pumpkin pies.
These four came marching down the street
As I came out of Grundy Greet.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/as-i-came-out-of-grundy-greet/
- Type
- Poems for Children, Animal Rhymes
- Written by
- Leroy F. Jackson
- Tune
- A marching beat, with each cat described in its own voice
- Best for ages
- 3 to 7 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| One was long and gray and thin | Stretch your arms out long and thin, then wiggle your fingers beside your chin like whiskers. |
| And one was round and sleek and fat | Make a big round circle with your arms in front of your tummy. |
| And one had starey yellow eyes | Make circles with your fingers round your eyes and stare. |
What Does As I Came Out of Grundy Greet Mean?
Four cats march by, and each one is a character. The first is "long and gray and thin" with a chin full of whiskers. The second is "round and sleek and fat", and the speaker guesses he must be a butcher's cat, since a butcher's shop would be a good place to find a meal. The third is dapper, meaning neat and smartly dressed, but also "slight, and frail", with "bells and tassels on his tail". The fourth has "starey yellow eyes / Almost as big as pumpkin pies".
The poem is a circle: the first two lines give the street and the cats, and the last two lines say the same thing in the opposite order. Grundy Greet is a place name in the poem; the poem does not say where it is.
History and Origin
The poem is in Leroy F. Jackson's The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes, which carries a 1918 copyright line from Rand McNally & Company. Cat parades like this one, where each animal is given one quick description, are easy for children to extend with their own.
Learning Activities
- Cat parade: put four cats, real, toy or drawn, in a line and have the child march them past while you read.
- Which cat are you? ask the child to pick one of the four and move like it round the room.
- Draw the fourth cat: the pumpkin-pie eyes are a gift for a drawing, so paint a cat with eyes that big.
- Make a fifth cat: invent one more cat and describe it in two lines that rhyme.