The Greedy Man Lyrics
A man so greedy that he bites the plates and eats the dates out of a calendar. Four lines, and the last word is a pun.
The Greedy Man
The greedy man is he who sits
And bites bits out of plates,
Or else takes up an almanac
And gobbles all the dates.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-greedy-man/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Spoken rhyme
- Best for ages
- 5 to 10 years
What Does The Greedy Man Mean?
The joke is in two words with double meanings. An almanac is a yearly book full of calendar dates, and dates are also a sweet fruit, so the greedy man "gobbles all the dates" from the calendar. Plates can mean dishes or the printed pictures in a book, and he bites bits out of those too. He is so greedy he eats things that are not food at all.
History and Origin
The rhyme is printed in The Real Mother Goose (1916). Almanacs were among the most common books in homes, listing dates, holidays, moon phases and weather sayings, so every child would have understood the joke.
Learning Activities
- Double meanings: find other words with two meanings, like bat, bark and ring.
- Real dates: taste a date fruit and look at the dates on a calendar.
- Sharing talk: talk about the difference between hungry and greedy.