Pensive Percy Lyrics
A boy named Percy was as quiet as a mouse, never set the barn on fire or knocked the house down, and spent hours gazing at the moon and feeding little fishes sarsaparilla from a spoon.
Pensive Percy
Percy when a little boy
Was quiet as a mouse,
He never set the barn afire
Nor battered down the house.
He used to sit for hours and hours
Just gazing at the moon,
And feeding little fishes
Sarsaparilla from a spoon.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/pensive-percy/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Leroy F. Jackson
- Tune
- Soft and dreamy for the quiet lines, with a smile on the last one
- Best for ages
- 4 to 9 years
What Does Pensive Percy Mean?
Pensive means deep in thought, and the name fits the boy: he sits still for hours and looks at the moon. The poem builds the joke in two steps. First it praises Percy for what he did not do: no barn on fire, no house battered down, which is a funny thing to boast about. Then it shows what he did do, and it is odder than any mischief: he fed the fishes sarsaparilla, a sweet brown drink traditionally flavoured with the roots of the sarsaparilla plant, by the spoonful.
The poem says when a little boy, so the speaker is looking back and the rhyme does not say what Percy did later. In real life fish should only have the food made for them.
History and Origin
This portrait of a boy comes from Jackson's 1918 collection of rhymes for children.
Learning Activities
- Moon watch: look at the moon together on a clear evening and talk about its shape that night.
- Quiet as a mouse: see how long the children can sit silently, then talk about what they heard.
- Sitting still: list quiet things to do while sitting still, as Percy did, such as gazing at the moon, listening to the rain or looking at a picture book.
- Fish food: if you have a pond or a tank, look at the right food for fish, and why it is not a fizzy drink.