The Pobble Who Has No Toes Lyrics
A Pobble swims the Bristol Channel with his nose wrapped in scarlet flannel, arrives with no toes at all, and nobody ever finds out who took them. Edward Lear's nonsense poem has six verses and ends with a feast of eggs and buttercups fried with fish.
The Pobble Who Has No Toes
The Pobble who has no toes
Had once as many as we;
When they said, "Some day you may lose them all;"
He replied, "Fish fiddle de-dee!"
And his Aunt Jobiska made him drink
Lavender water tinged with pink;
For she said, "The World in general knows
There's nothing so good for a Pobble's toes!"
The Pobble who has no toes,
Swam across the Bristol Channel;
But before he set out he wrapped his nose
In a piece of scarlet flannel.
For his Aunt Jobiska said, "No harm
Can come to his toes if his nose is warm;
And it's perfectly known that a Pobble's toes
Are safe - provided he minds his nose."
The Pobble swam fast and well,
And when boats or ships came near him,
He tinkledy-binkledy-winkled a bell
So that all the world could hear him.
And all the Sailors and Admirals cried,
When they saw him nearing the further side, -
"He has gone to fish, for his Aunt Jobiska's
Runcible Cat with crimson whiskers!"
But before he touched the shore, -
The shore of the Bristol Channel,
A sea-green Porpoise carried away
His wrapper of scarlet flannel.
And when he came to observe his feet,
Formerly garnished with toes so neat,
His face at once became forlorn
On perceiving that all his toes were gone!
And nobody ever knew,
From that dark day to the present,
Whoso had taken the Pobble's toes,
In a manner so far from pleasant.
Whether the shrimps or crawfish gray,
Or crafty Mermaids stole them away,
Nobody knew; and nobody knows
How the Pobble was robbed of his twice five toes!
The Pobble who has no toes
Was placed in a friendly Bark,
And they rowed him back, and carried him up
To his Aunt Jobiska's Park.
And she made him a feast, at his earnest wish,
Of eggs and buttercups fried with fish;
And she said, "It's a fact the whole world knows,
That Pobbles are happier without their toes."
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-pobble-who-has-no-toes/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Edward Lear
- Tune
- Read with a perfectly straight face, like a news report about something very silly
- Best for ages
- 5 to 10 years
What Does The Pobble Who Has No Toes Mean?
The story goes in six short steps. A Pobble who has ten toes is warned that he may lose them one day and answers with a nonsense phrase, "Fish fiddle de-dee". His Aunt Jobiska makes him drink lavender water tinged with pink, because everybody knows it is good for a Pobble's toes. Before his swim across the Bristol Channel, the sea between Wales and the south-west of England, he wraps his nose in scarlet flannel, on his aunt's advice. Her reasoning is the joke: the toes will be safe as long as the nose is warm.
The swim goes well. The Pobble rings a bell so that the whole world can hear him, and the sailors and admirals who watch guess that he has gone to fish for Aunt Jobiska's Runcible Cat with crimson whiskers. Then a sea-green porpoise carries off the flannel, and when the Pobble looks down, his twice five toes are gone. No one ever learns who took them. The suspects are the shrimps, the gray crawfish, or the crafty mermaids.
The poem never mentions any pain. The Pobble's face turns forlorn, which means sad and lonely, but a friendly boat rows him home and Aunt Jobiska cooks him the feast he asks for. She ends with a new certainty, that Pobbles are happier without their toes. Three times (in the first, second and last verses) she says that the whole world knows what she is telling him, and each time the "fact" is invented on the spot.
Some words: Whoso means whoever, garnished means decorated, and a Bark is a small sailing boat. Runcible is Lear's own word, and no one knows what it means. It turns up again in the runcible spoon of The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.
History and Origin
Edward Lear (1812 to 1888) was an English artist and writer who drew the pictures for his own nonsense verses. This poem is in his book Laughable Lyrics: A Fresh Book of Nonsense, published in 1877. By then he had already put out Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets (1871) and More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc. (1872). The 1894 edition used for this page gathers his nonsense books in one volume.
The introduction to that edition says Lear died at San Remo, Italy, in January 1888.
Learning Activities
- Toe detective: the poem names three suspects, the shrimps, the gray crawfish and the mermaids. Let each child pick one and draw why they did it.
- Two readers: one reads the story lines and another reads only what Aunt Jobiska says, in a very sure voice.
- Ten toes: count the Pobble's "twice five" toes on your own feet, and wiggle them one at a time.
- Draw the feast: sketch eggs, fish and buttercups fried together. Buttercups are not for eating, so this is a drawing job only.