The Arch Armadillo Lyrics
An armadillo builds a hut under a willow, but he has no bed. So he rests his head on a young porcupine instead. Five lines, one joke, and a prickly pillow.
The Arch Armadillo
There once was an arch Armadillo
Who built him a hut 'neath a willow;
He hadn't a bed
So he rested his head
On a young Porcupine for a pillow.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-arch-armadillo/
- Type
- Poems for Children, Animal Rhymes
- Written by
- Carolyn Wells
- Tune
- Dry and quick, with a pause before the last line to let the joke land
- Best for ages
- 5 to 9 years
What Does The Arch Armadillo Mean?
This is a limerick, a five-line joke poem. The first, second and last lines are long and rhyme with each other, here Armadillo, willow and pillow. The two short lines in the middle rhyme with each other, bed and head. The last line brings the surprise.
The word arch is the other thing to explain. Here it means playful and knowing, a little mischievous, as in an arch smile. An armadillo is a small animal whose back is covered in bony plates like armour, and a porcupine is covered in sharp quills. Resting your head on a porcupine would be a very odd choice, and the poem never says whether it hurt.
A hut under a willow tree and a living pillow make a small, silly picture, which children like to draw.
History and Origin
Carolyn Wells was an American writer of humorous verse. This limerick is in her The Jingle Book, which has a copyright date of 1899 and was reprinted in 1901.
The limerick form was made popular in English by Edward Lear, whose A Book of Nonsense came out in 1846. Wells's poem uses the same pattern of rhymes, with an animal, a place and an odd twist.
Learning Activities
- Draw the hut: draw the armadillo's hut under the willow and the young porcupine inside.
- Fill in the last word: read the first four lines and let children guess the final word before you say it.
- Make a limerick: choose an animal and a place, and see if the group can write five lines with the same rhyme pattern.
- Armour or quills?: look at pictures of an armadillo and a porcupine, and talk about how each one protects itself.