About the Poem

A nonsense poem about two brothers who are called Chip and Pin. See how many words and phrases related to chips and pins you can spot as the poem progresses.

Style

Nonsense poem

Length

26 lines

Key Stage

KS1, KS2, KS3

Author

Max Scratchmann

The Ballad of Chip and Pin

There once were two brothers called Chip and called Pin,
One was very fat, the other was thin,
They lived in a bungalow at old Chipping Sodbury,
The price that they paid for it was very near robbery.

One day they were sat and decided to anoint,
At a place on the map that they chose to pin point,
The memory of their dad who kept an old lock,
And said that his sons were a chip off his block.

They rang the old man but he was screening his calls,
So they tried to pin him down inside his four walls,
But his refusal to meet them became decidedly pointed,
And old Chip Senior just refused to be anointed.

So they decided at last to adopt grey pin stripes,
And chip in together for a set of bagpipes,
And there do we leave them, playing their song,
On a souvenir pin cushion, made in Hong Kong.