Some old fave humourous poems I found.
Posted by Neelakantan K.K. on June 10, 2007
Google is really my friend. I found some poems I read in school way back. I missed them searched in Google and found them.
Here they are.
The Muddle head from Petushkee
I knew a man from Petushkee
As muddleheaded as could be.He always got mixed up with clothes;
He wore his mittens on his toes,
Forgot his collar in his haste,
And tied his tie around his waist.What a muddle head was he,
That man who lived in Petushkee!They told him as he went about:
“You’ve got u’r coat on inside out!”
And when they saw his hat, they said:
“You’ve put a saucepan on your head!”What a muddle head was he,
That man who lived in Petushkee!At lunch he scratched a piece of bread,
And spread some butter on his head.
He put his walking stick to bed,
And he stood in the rack instead.What a muddle head was he,
That man who lived in Petushkee!He walked upto a tram one day
And climbed in very sprightly;
Conductor thought that he would pay,
Instead he said politely:“Parding your beggon,
Kister Monductor,
I’m off for a week’s vacation;
I stop you to beg your cramway tar
As soon as we reach the station.”
Conductor got a fright
And didn’t sleep that nite.What a muddle head was he,
That man who lived in Petushkee!He rushed into the first café:
“A railway ticket please, One way.”
And at the ticket office said:
“A slice of tea and a cup of bread.”What a muddle head was he,
That man who lived in Petushkee!He passed the man collecting the fares,
And entered a carriage awaiting repairs,
That stood on a siding, all by itself.
Half of his luggage, he put on a shelf,
The rest on the floor, his coat on his lap
And settled himself for a bit of a nap.All at once he raised his head,
“I must have been asleep”- he said.
“Hey, what stop is this?” he cried
“Petushkee,” a voice replied.Once again he closed his eyes
And dreamt he was in Paradise.
When he woke, he looked about,
Raised the window and leaned out.“I’ve seen this place before, I believe,
Is it Kharkov or is it Kiev?
Tell me where I am,” he cried.
“In Petushkee”, a voice replied.And so again he settled down
And dreamt the world was upside down
When he woke, he looked about,
Raised the window and looked out.“I seem to know this station too,
Is it Nalchik or Baku?
Tell me what its called,” he cried.
“Petushkee’ a voice replied.Up he jumped: “It’s a crime!
I’ve been riding all this time,
And here I am where I began!
That’s no way to treat a man!’What a muddle head was he,
That man who lived in Petushkee!
Plus some pages containing some of Ogden Nash’s poems. Here it is and Here. It’s not a comprehensive list but it has a nice collection.
A sample.
Commom Cold
Go hang yourself, you old M.D,!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
In not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever’s hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!Give ear, you scientific fossil!
Here is the genuine Cold Colossal;
The Cold of which researchers dream,
The Perfect Cold, the Cold Supreme.
This honored system humbly holds
The Super-cold to end all colds;
The Cold Crusading for Democracy;
The Führer of the Streptococcracy.Bacilli swarm within my portals
Such as were ne’er conceived by mortals,
But bred by scientists wise and hoary
In some Olympic laboratory;
Bacteria as large as mice,
With feet of fire and heads of ice
Who never interrupt for slumber
Their stamping elephantine rumba.A common cold, gadzooks, forsooth!
Ah, yes. And Lincoln was jostled by Booth;
Don Juan was a budding gallant,
And Shakespeare’s plays show signs of talent;
The Arctic winter is fairly coolish,
And your diagnosis is fairly foolish.
Oh what a derision history holds
For the man who belittled the Cold of Colds!
I love his poems.
Adventures of Isabel
Isabel met an enormous bear,
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t care;
The bear was hungry, the bear was ravenous,
The bear’s big mouth was cruel and cavernous.
The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you,
How do, Isabel, now I’ll eat you!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry.
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She washed her hands and she straightened her hair up,
Then Isabel quietly ate the bear up.Once in a night as black as pitch
Isabel met a wicked old witch.
the witch’s face was cross and wrinkled,
The witch’s gums with teeth were sprinkled.
Ho, ho, Isabel! the old witch crowed,
I’ll turn you into an ugly toad!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry,
She showed no rage and she showed no rancor,
But she turned the witch into milk and drank her.Isabel met a hideous giant,
Isabel continued self reliant.
The giant was hairy, the giant was horrid,
He had one eye in the middle of his forhead.
Good morning, Isabel, the giant said,
I’ll grind your bones to make my bread.
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She nibled the zwieback that she always fed off,
And when it was gone, she cut the giant’s head off.Isabel met a troublesome doctor,
He punched and he poked till he really shocked her.
The doctor’s talk was of coughs and chills
And the doctor’s satchel bulged with pills.
The doctor said unto Isabel,
Swallow this, it will make you well.
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She took those pills from the pill concocter,
And Isabel calmly cured the doctor.Isabel once was asleep in bed
When a horrible dream crawled into her head.
It was worse than an dinosaur, worse than a shark,
Worse than an octopus oozing in the dark.
Boo! said the dream, with a dreadful grin,
I’m going to scare you out of your skin!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
Isabel had a cleverer scheme;
She just woke up and fooled that dream.Whenever you meet a bugaboo
Remember what Isabel used to do.
Don’t scream when the bugaboo says Boo!
Just look it in the eye and say Boo to you!
That’s how to banish a bugaboo;
Isabel did it and you can too!
Boooooo To You!”









June 10, 2007 at 7:53 pm
hehe..ya nice…the common cold one was new bt awesome
June 10, 2007 at 8:23 pm
hey the isabel one is nt complete..am sure there was something to do woth a bogeyman at the end !!!
June 10, 2007 at 10:32 pm
There was also one about the nightmare and she woke up, and the one where she says Boo to you.
but weirdo thing is everywhere I look i only find till the doctor one.
June 11, 2007 at 11:57 am
Ah…’The Muddle head from Petushkee’ was such a nice poem. One of my favourites. Great to see it once again.
A nice nostalgic post…
June 11, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Yeah. We read it in clas VII, no?
June 11, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Yup exactly. Deolinda Miss was our teacher then. Was she the English teacher of your section too?
June 11, 2007 at 8:14 pm
No Saroj Miss was our eng teacher. Deolinda miss was our Moral Science teacher.
June 17, 2007 at 4:22 am
Yurungkash
King’s Cross Station Ray Timgren Second Council of Lyons Carmelo “The Fury” Marrero West Smithfield White Water Country Waterpark There there. (The Boney King of Nowhere.) Flying Blue Comignago Mike Fredo
July 16, 2007 at 1:09 pm
hey i was thinkin one whole night bout how confused we are in life n then durin that sour moment a funny thought crossed my mind and that was muddle head he was more confused then me surely he gave me a reason to smile my heart out back then n soo i searched the net and i found the man from petushkee as muddled and non plussed as he could ever be !thankyou muddle head!lol…
July 24, 2007 at 9:02 pm
aaaaaaaaaawwwwwww :’
:’
:’
FINALLLLLLLYYYYYYY i found the Muddlehead… i hv been lookin fr it fr ova an year now.. :’
n here he was.. alongwith Isabel… uuuuuufffff.. School memories… :’
THANKKK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much.. :’ 
July 24, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Okay.. here is the paragraph wich was added later to the Adventures of Isabel poem.. by Ogden Nash..
“Isabel once was asleep in bed
When a horrible dream crawled into her head.
It was worse than an dinosaur, worse than a shark,
Worse than an octopus oozing in the dark.
Boo! said the dream, with a dreadful grin,
I’m going to scare you out of your skin!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
Isabel had a cleverer scheme;
She just woke up and fooled that dream.
Whenever you meet a bugaboo
Remember what Isabel used to do.
Don’t scream when the bugaboo says Boo!
Just look it in the eye and say Boo to you!
That’s how to banish a bugaboo;
Isabel did it and you can too!
Boooooo To You!”
July 24, 2007 at 9:24 pm
And another one from Ogden Nash..wich i read in school!!
“This Is Going To Hurt Just A Little Bit
One thing I like less than most things is sitting in a dentist chair with my mouth wide open.
And that I will never have to do it again is a hope that I am against hope hopen.
Because some tortures are physical and some are mental,
But the one that is both is dental.
It is hard to be self-possessed
With your jaw digging into your chest.
So hard to retain your calm
When your fingernails are making serious alterations in your life line or love line or some other important line in your palm;
So hard to give your usual effect of cheery benignity
When you know your position is one of the two or three in life most lacking in dignity.
And your mouth is like a section of road that is being worked on.
And it is all cluttered up with stone crushers and concrete mixers and drills and steam rollers and there isn’t a nerve in your head thatyou aren’t being irked on.
Oh, some people are unfortunate enough to be strung up by thumbs.
And others have things done to their gums,
And your teeth are supposed to be being polished,
But you have reason to believe they are being demolished.
And the circumstance that adds most to your terror
Is that it’s all done with a mirror,
Because the dentist may be a bear, or as the Romans used to say, only they were referring to a feminine bear when they said it, an ursa,
But all the same how can you be sure when he takes his crowbar in one hand and mirror in the other he won’t get mixed up, the way you do when you try to tie a bow tie with the aid of a mirror, and forget that left is right and vice versa?
And then at last he says That will be all; but it isn’t because he then coats your mouth from cellar to roof
With something that I suspect is generally used to put a shine on a horse’s hoof.
And you totter to your feet and think. Well it’s all over now and afterall it was only this once.
And he says come back in three monce.
And this, O Fate, is I think the most vicious circle that thou ever sentest,
That Man has to go continually to the dentist to keep his teeth in good condition
when the chief reason he wants his teeth in good condition
is so that he won’t have to go to the dentist. “
August 3, 2007 at 8:43 pm
10x. I really wanted that last para.
July 6, 2008 at 11:47 am
all poems were really good . I ESPECIALLY liked the muddle head from petuschkee . I was wonderful .Please write more poems
July 6, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Ach, I’m afraid I did not write those poems. They were written by Ogden Nash.
July 19, 2008 at 10:29 am
was googling for the petushkee poem. brought back sweet memories of school. (Space central school, sriharikota). thanks a million neelakant
July 19, 2008 at 8:30 pm
You is most welcome.