1.27.2008
Turkey/Wocket
We used to have "Do Re Mi," but now Kent's favorite happy song that gets him to calm down is Dr. Seuss's book There's a Wocket in My Pocket sung to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw." We've been reading this book to him for a while now, but the other night, I started turning it around in my mind while I was falling asleep, since I have most of his books memorized at this point. I realized that the meter of "Turkey in the Straw" lends itself very well to the overall (but sometimes inexact) 8787 meter of Wocket, similar to the way in which one can sing any Emily Dickinson poem to "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (also an 8787). My advisor in college, herself a Dickinson scholar, pointed that out to me one day, and I've been paying more attention to songs and poems with similar meters ever since.
The first "verse," which you're welcomed to try to fit into "Turkey in the Straw" if you like, is as follows (and the subtitle of the book is "Dr. Seuss's Book of Ridiculous Rhymes," which you'll understand as you start to read):
Did you ever have a feeling there's a zamp in the lamp?
Or a nink in the sink? Or a woset in the closet?
Sometimes I am quite certain there's a jertain the curtain,
And when I hear a tock, I know a zlock's behind the clock.
I had to play with it for a little while to make it work out, stretching out some lines to fit the tune and shortening others, but it's pretty cute now that it does work. It's the song I sing to Kent while I'm giving him his post-bath massage before he gets his PJs on, since he used to be quite the little ball of crazy energy during that time. The song actually helps him mellow out, though, and Jack even joins me in harmony for the last two lines, which are these:
There's the yottle in the bottle, whom I do not wish to keep,
But the zillow on my pillow always helps me fall asleep.
***
We have entirely too much fun keeping our son entertained.
The first "verse," which you're welcomed to try to fit into "Turkey in the Straw" if you like, is as follows (and the subtitle of the book is "Dr. Seuss's Book of Ridiculous Rhymes," which you'll understand as you start to read):
Did you ever have a feeling there's a zamp in the lamp?
Or a nink in the sink? Or a woset in the closet?
Sometimes I am quite certain there's a jertain the curtain,
And when I hear a tock, I know a zlock's behind the clock.
I had to play with it for a little while to make it work out, stretching out some lines to fit the tune and shortening others, but it's pretty cute now that it does work. It's the song I sing to Kent while I'm giving him his post-bath massage before he gets his PJs on, since he used to be quite the little ball of crazy energy during that time. The song actually helps him mellow out, though, and Jack even joins me in harmony for the last two lines, which are these:
There's the yottle in the bottle, whom I do not wish to keep,
But the zillow on my pillow always helps me fall asleep.
***
We have entirely too much fun keeping our son entertained.
- posted by erica 1/27/2008 08:45:00 PM
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