Eat, Eat, Eat Lyrics
A hungry child waits at the table for the family meal. There are sweet potatoes and meat, a favourite plate and best shoes, and Daddy keeps on talking. The poem ends with the promise of apple-cake and a plea to hurry up and eat.
Eat, Eat, Eat
Here come the sweet potatoes
And here's the Sunday meat,
I guess we must be ready now
To eat, eat, eat.
I'm going to have the nicey plate
And Daddy's leather seat,
And wear my patent-leather shoes
To eat, eat, eat.
My Daddy's talking all about
The war, and some old fleet,
I wonder if he never, never,
Never wants to eat.
We're going to have some apple-cake,
We're going to have a treat.
O hurry, hurry, Daddy,
Let us eat, eat, eat.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/eat-eat-eat/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Leroy F. Jackson
- Tune
- Impatient and bouncy, with the three eats landing on the beat
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Here come the sweet potatoes | Hold both hands out as if carrying a heavy dish. |
| I wonder if he never, never | Shake your head and tap your foot. |
| Let us eat, eat, eat | Tap the table three times, once for each eat. |
What Does Eat, Eat, Eat Mean?
Waiting for a meal is the whole subject here. In the first verse the food arrives, sweet potatoes and "the Sunday meat", which is the meat for the Sunday dinner. The child is ready: "to eat, eat, eat." In the second verse the child is going to have "the nicey plate", the good one, and "Daddy's leather seat", and will wear patent-leather shoes, which are shiny leather shoes kept for best.
The third verse brings the problem. Daddy is "talking all about the war, and some old fleet" and does not seem to want to eat. The child wonders if he "never, never, never wants to eat", which is the funniest line in the poem. The last verse is the hope, apple-cake and a treat, and an urgent plea: "O hurry, hurry, Daddy."
The second line of every verse ends on a word that rhymes with eat: meat, seat, fleet and treat.
History and Origin
Leroy F. Jackson's collection of rhymes appeared in 1918, the year the First World War ended, and the poem mentions the war and a fleet in passing.
It shows a family meal from a child's point of view: the grown-ups talk, and the one person who wants the meal served is the child. Many parents will see their own table in it.
Learning Activities
- Tap the eats: tap the table gently on each eat while someone reads.
- Menu for a feast: draw the dinner in the poem and add your family's own favourite dish.
- Wait and say please: practise saying please and thank you while waiting for food, and say the last verse together.
- Sweet potato look: look at a sweet potato and a potato side by side and compare the skins.