Another brisk Mother Goose limerick, this one about a woman in a permanent hurry. Its clipped rhythm suits a quick, breathless reading voice.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
There was an old woman in Surrey,
Who was morn, noon, and night in a hurry;
Called her husband a fool,
Drove the children to school,
The worrying old woman of Surrey.
About this rhyme
Text matches: hurried morn, noon and night, husband called a fool, children driven to school. · The rhyme is five lines long.
An old woman of Surrey is in a hurry morning, noon and night: husband called a fool, children driven off to school without much patience for either. It's a brisk little character sketch, five lines and you know exactly the sort of house she runs. Say it fast, the way she'd say it herself.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition