Cover of Tommy Snooks

Tommy Snooks

Traditional

ages 0 to 2nursery rhymesread aloudabout 11 seconds aloud

A tiny, tidy courting scene told in four lines flat, all rhyme and no fuss. The names beg to be called back and forth, which makes it a natural for call-and-response.

From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.

As Tommy Snooks and Bessy Brooks
  Were walking out one Sunday,
Says Tommy Snooks to Bessy Brooks,
  "Wilt marry me on Monday?"

About this rhyme

Four lines built entirely around a rhyme: Snooks, Brooks, and a proposal made on a Sunday walk for a Monday wedding. There's no real story, just the pleasure of the names chiming together.

Say the names with a flourish, they're doing all the work.

Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition

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