I saw a jolly hunter
I saw a jolly hunter
with a jolly gun
Walking in the country
In the jolly sun

In the jolly meadow
sat a jolly hare
saw the jolly hunter
took jolly care

Hunter jolly eager
sight of jolly prey
forgot gun pointing
wrong jolly way(!)

Jolly hunter jolly head
over heels gone
jolly old safety catch
not jolly on!

Bang! went the jolly gun
Hunter jolly dead
Jolly prey* got clean away
Jolly good I said

Charles Causley
*The original has `hare' here, but I prefer `prey' with the internal rhyme. Sod the poet. Well, perhaps not sod the poet after all, as i'm almost certainly in breach of copyright posting this here. It's from a volume of poems he wrote for children, and one of my stepdaughters showed it me.
If you buy the book he might forgive me.
Click here for next week's poem
Click here for last week's poem

Return to Thomas Forster's home page