# Half-remembered naughty verse **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 22, 2011, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-remembered-naughty-verse/568552 "2011-01-22T10:00:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-remembered-naughty-verse/568552/1 "2011-01-22T10:00:44Z")
## In 1960, my Dad recited for me a suggestive poem about a farmer. I remember very little of it, and he refused to tell it to me again, because of its salacious nature. In the years since, I have heard other poems in this style. FWIW, here’s what I remember, with the forgotten lines represented by dashes and the parts my Dad deliberately omitted at the ends of second lines represented by “…”: \*There was an old farmer who lived by the crick A wicked old farmer who played with his … Marbles in springtime-------[word rhyming with “door”] ------------ he called her a … * * * ----------------------------------[word rhyming with “bit”] The boys in the stable were shov’ling out… Contents of stable," etc.\* Yes, I know what the words rhyming with “door” and “bit” were–in the second lines! 😃 Does anyone know the rest of the poem? ---
**Author:** ![maisoui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@maisoui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maisoui)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-remembered-naughty-verse/568552/2 "2011-01-22T10:13:11Z")
Might it be… There was an old farmer who lived by a rock (which also has a suggestive rhyming word)? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-remembered-naughty-verse/568552/3 "2011-01-22T10:20:13Z")
Googling “There was an old farmer who lived” gives me [this](http://www.coltforum.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-31653.html): There was an old farmer who lived by the crick You could tell by his actions he played with his… Marbles with the woman next door Who all the boys in the barnyard thought was a… Very nice lady who walked like a duck, And she she taught the boys a new way to… Bring up their children and a new way to knit While the boys from the barnyard were taking a… Walk down by the crick, to show her the length of their… Birch bark canoe. And also, amusingly, [you asking the same question](http://boardstest.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=273653&postcount=22) nearly 12 years ago. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![maisoui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@maisoui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maisoui)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-remembered-naughty-verse/568552/4 "2011-01-22T10:22:13Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > … And also, amusingly, [you asking the same question](http://boardstest.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=273653&postcount=22) nearly 12 years ago. 🙂 Apparently I have the “slightly different” version in mind… ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-remembered-naughty-verse/568552/5 "2011-01-22T10:23:39Z")
Might be “The Farmer” by Wicked Tinkers: There was an old farmer who lived by a rock He sat in the meadow a waving his fists at some boys who were down by the creek their feet in the water, their hands on their marbles and playthings and in days of yore there came a young lady who looked like a lovely young maiden, she sat on the grass she lifted her skirts and showed us her ruffles and laces and a neat little tuck she told us she was learning a new way to raise up her children and teach them to knit while the boys in the barnyard were shoveling straw from the stables and they worked day and night If you think this is vulgar then bless you your right ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-remembered-naughty-verse/568552/6 "2011-01-22T12:08:23Z")
Sounds like a dirtier version of the [“Miss Suzie” jump-rope/hand-clap song](http://www.gameskidsplay.net/jump_rope_ryhmes/jump_miss_susie.htm): “Miss Suzie had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell. Miss Suzie went to heaven and the steamboat went to Hello operator, please get me number nine. If you disconnect me, I’ll kick you from behind the refrigerator, there was a piece of glass. Miss Suzie sat upon it, and cut her little Ask me no more questions, I’ll tell you no more lies” … and so on. A bunch of versions are at the linked page; we usually sung the second version. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-remembered-naughty-verse/568552/7 "2011-01-22T12:29:11Z")
There’s a whole collection of them at this website - [csufresno folklore drinking songs.](http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/drinkingsongs/mp3s/field-work/other-collections/mcwilliam-collection/04-songs-3-foul/violets3.txt) And there’s also the Tampa Red “[Yas, yas, yas](http://www.alles-uke.de/BluePages/duck.htm)” I’ve always called these ‘assumption songs’, though as far as I know, that personal term has never caught on with anyone else. People assume they know where the rhyme is going and then it doesn’t. Oh, yeah - ‘[Shaving Cream](http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/shavingc.htm)’ was another. ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-remembered-naughty-verse/568552/8 "2011-01-22T15:23:56Z")
There once was a young man named Ennis… ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-remembered-naughty-verse/568552/9 "2011-01-22T15:50:27Z")
Moved MPSIMS to Cafe Society, with a kick in the assumptions.