About the Poem
A poem about a goldfish with a huge appetite who eats anything and everything. In terms of nonsense verse, this is about as close to a sensible nonsense poems as one gets.
Category
Style
Nonsense poem
Length
18 lines
Key Stage
KS1, KS2, KS3
Author
Max Scratchmann
The Hungry Fish
The goldfish was a-swimming round, around the great big lake,
He said I want some chocolate, boys, I wants a chocolate cake,
He said I am so hungry, boys, that I will surely die,
So he ate the state of Texas and a maple pecan pie.
He swallowed up three shins of beef, he ate a leg of ham,
He thought that he was surely full, but then he ate a yam,
He loved that sweet potato taste and so he had some more,
And ate a spit-roast farmer’s ox as he’d done in days of yore.
Three wombats and a grizzly bear he swallowed one by one,
He ate a hefty hefalump, although it weighed a ton,
A vat of crisps and ginger bread, a stale week-old pork pie,
Two meatball cans, spaghetti hoops and a loaf of rye.
At last he cried, enough, enough, this is enough for me,
I have to stop the eating now, I’m going home for me tea.
Copyright © Max Scratchmann. All Rights Reserved
