About the Poem

Edward Lear, one of the earliest writers of nonsense verse, wrote a very famous poem, The Owl and the Pussycat, and a rather less well known one, The Pobble Who Has No Toes. Max's Pobble poem reintroduces to the Pobble, but in his modern version the Pobble manages to hang onto all his toes.

Style

Nonsense poem

Length

16 lines

Key Stage

KS2, KS3

Author

Max Scratchmann

The Pobble Who Has All His Toes

There once was a Pobble who had all his toes,
And he said with a stifled yawn,
I’m not an old Pobble to tell all my woes,
But I’m careful when I’m mowing the lawn.

I don’t put my toes in piggy-wig pens,
I don’t cut my wood with an axe,
I don’t keep a donkey or pecky-peck hens,
And I pays all my duties and tax.

I dance very lightly and ballet with care,
I’m a waltzer who’s sent straight from Heaven,
I never do more than I do that I dare,
And I’m tucked up in bed by half-seven.

So count them, remount them, I have all my ten,
Ten toes to go Pobbling free,
I’m quite philosophical, definitely Zen,
And there’s no-one has toes quite like me.