The Table and the Chair Lyrics
A table with sore feet persuades a chair to go for a walk on two legs. They toddle through the streets, get lost in an alley, and are led home by a duck, a beetle and a mouse, then sit down to beans and bacon. Edward Lear's five verses have forty lines.
The Table and the Chair
Said the Table to the Chair,
"You can hardly be aware
How I suffer from the heat
And from chilblains on my feet.
If we took a little walk,
We might have a little talk;
Pray let us take the air,"
Said the Table to the Chair.
Said the Chair unto the Table,
"Now, you know we are not able:
How foolishly you talk,
When you know we cannot walk!"
Said the Table with a sigh,
"It can do no harm to try.
I've as many legs as you:
Why can't we walk on two?"
So they both went slowly down,
And walked about the town
With a cheerful bumpy sound
As they toddled round and round;
And everybody cried,
As they hastened to their side,
"See! the Table and the Chair
Have come out to take the air!"
But in going down an alley,
To a castle in a valley,
They completely lost their way,
And wandered all the day;
Till, to see them safely back,
They paid a Ducky-quack,
And a Beetle, and a Mouse,
Who took them to their house.
Then they whispered to each other,
"O delightful little brother,
What a lovely walk we've taken!
Let us dine on beans and bacon."
So the Ducky and the leetle
Browny-Mousy and the Beetle
Dined, and danced upon their heads
Till they toddled to their beds.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-table-and-the-chair/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Edward Lear
- Tune
- Read in two voices, a worried Chair and a persuasive Table
- Best for ages
- 4 to 9 years
What Does The Table and the Chair Mean?
The first verse opens with the Table speaking to the Chair, and it ends the same way, with the line that began it. The Table complains about the heat and about chilblains on his feet. Chilblains are sore, itchy patches that come from the cold, so the two complaints do not quite fit together, which suits a nonsense poem. He suggests a walk to take the air. The Chair says they cannot walk, and the Table answers with a bit of logic: he has as many legs as the Chair, so why can't they walk on two?
In the third verse they walk about with "a cheerful bumpy sound", and everyone cries out that the Table and the Chair have come out to take the air. In the fourth, going down an alley towards a castle in a valley, they lose their way and wander all day. To see them safely back they pay a Ducky-quack, a Beetle and a Mouse, who take them home. The fifth verse is dinner. The two of them whisper about their lovely walk and decide to dine on beans and bacon, and the Ducky, the Mouse and the Beetle dance on their heads until they toddle off to bed.
The Table's request in the first verse begins with an old-fashioned word for "please", and toddled means walked in the unsteady way of a very small child.
History and Origin
Edward Lear (1812 to 1888) put the poem in Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets, published in 1871, with pictures he drew himself. The introduction to the 1894 edition used here mentions musical arrangements by other composers of the adventures of the Table and the Chair.
Learning Activities
- Two voices: one reader is the Table and another is the Chair; swap parts at the third verse.
- Toddle walk: walk slowly round the room in a bumpy, wobbly way, making a cheerful bumpy sound, and stop when someone shouts "See!"
- Draw the route: map the walk from the house, down the alley, to the castle in the valley, and back home.
- Helpers' menu: make a menu for the Ducky, the Beetle and the Mouse, starting with beans and bacon.