A limerick-shaped rhyme about a dance teacher whose stiff pupils get sent packing. Short, silly, and satisfying to say fast.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
There came an old woman from France
Who taught grown-up children to dance;
But they were so stiff,
She sent them home in a sniff,
This sprightly old woman from France.
About this rhyme
Text matches: taught grown-up children to dance, found them too stiff, sent home 'in a miff' (an old word for a huff).
An old woman arrives from France to teach grown-up children how to dance, finds them hopelessly stiff, and sends the lot of them home in a huff. It's a rhyme with real bite to it, a visitor's verdict on a room full of clumsy adults. Play the huff for comedy; that's where the rhyme turns.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition