The Sniffle
Ogden Nash
In spite of her sniffle,
Isabel’s chiffle.
Some girls with a sniffle
Would be weepy and tiffle;
They would look awful,
Like a rained-on waffle,
But Isabel’s chiffle
In spite of her sniffle.
Her nose is more red
With a cold in her head,
But then, to be sure
Her eyes are bluer.
Some girls with a snuffle,
Their tempers are uffle,
But when Isabel’s snivelly
She’s snivelly civilly,
And when she is snuffly
She’s perfectly luffly.
Nash takes liberties in making this poem rhyme while offering humor in the spellings and pronunciations. Can you tell what the words are intended to be (see the answers below). Try reading aloud and the meanings just seem to come to you. The poem has sort of a Dr. Seuss tempo. Don’t trip over rhymes of “sure” with “bluer”; just pronounce sure as if it were two syllables “shu-er” and you’ll just sail right on.
Chiffle = cheerful
Tiffle = tearful
Uffle = awful
Luffly = lovely
5 comments:
Some days I love a rainy day. It gives me an excuse to be lazy and read and do puzzles. But then we don't all that much of it here.
How delightful! Lovely use of language and as was often his wont, Nash manages to tickle our funny bone (or fickle our bunny tone?).
Haha, nice one, Nicholas.
Wonderful B, just the sort of poem I associate with you. I'm glad you enjoyed the rainy day by making the most of it doing nothing.......a much underated pastime.
Amusing read thanks.
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