Here Comes a Cabbage Lyrics
A parade comes down the road, but the marchers are kitchen things dressed up: a cabbage in a bonnet, a bottle in a collar, a meat-saw with gold teeth and a corn-stalk with rings in its ears. Each one is a pun on a part of the body.
Here Comes a Cabbage
Here comes a cabbage with a bonnet on its head,
A pretty purple bonnet with a bow of blue and red;
And here comes a bottle with a collar 'round its neck,
A handsome linen collar, too, without a spot or speck;
Next comes a meat-saw, his job is biting beef,
And according to the cleaver he has gold in all his teeth;
And last of all there comes along, amid the ringing cheers,
A princely Indian corn-stalk with rings in both his ears.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/here-comes-a-cabbage/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Leroy F. Jackson
- Tune
- A cheerful marching chant, with a big cheer on the last line
- Best for ages
- 4 to 9 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| A pretty purple bonnet with a bow of blue and red | Tie an imaginary bow under your chin with both hands. |
| And here comes a bottle with a collar 'round its neck | Run a finger around your neck as if tugging a collar. |
| With rings in both his ears | Touch both earlobes with your fingertips. |
What Does Here Comes a Cabbage Mean?
Each marcher in the parade is an ordinary thing that happens to have a body part in its name. A cabbage has a head, which is why it wears a bonnet. A bottle has a neck, so it wears a collar. A saw has teeth, and the meat-saw's are gold. Corn grows in ears, so the stalk wears earrings. The poem names the head, neck, teeth and ears outright, so the pleasure for a child is spotting that a cabbage really has a head and a bottle a neck. It leads to a question: what else has a head or a foot or an eye?
A meat-saw is a butcher's saw for cutting through bone. A cleaver is a broad chopping knife. Indian corn is an old name for maize, the tall plant with ears of grain. The meat-saw is described "according to the cleaver", as if the cleaver were the one spreading the gossip about his gold teeth.
History and Origin
Leroy F. Jackson put this poem into The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes, which has a copyright line of 1918. The poem is eight long lines that go in pairs, a swinging rhythm that suits a parade.
Learning Activities
- Dress the parade: draw the four marchers, giving each its bonnet, collar, gold teeth or earrings.
- Find the body part: go around the kitchen and find things with a neck, a foot, an eye, a mouth or a head, such as a bottle, a table, a needle, a potato or a jar.
- Make a new marcher: invent a fifth member of the parade, such as a clock with hands or a mountain with a foot, and say what it wears.
- Cheering line: everyone stands at the end and gives the last cheer together.