POETRY A LIMERICK Oh I wish Id looked

POETRY – A LIMERICK “Oh I wish I’d looked after me teeth!” by Pam Ayres

“Oh I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth!” ◦ Pam Ayre’s poem is a long, limerick-style poem ◦ Limericks follow a rhythm and rhyme scheme: Line Syllables Rhyming Scheme 1 7 -10 A 2 7 -10 A 3 5 -7 B 4 5 -7 B 5 7 -10 A

Let’s look at the rhythm and rhyme more closely…. Line Syllables Rhyming Scheme Example: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 9 9 7 7 9 A A B B A Oh, I wish I’d looked aft-er me teeth. And spot-ted the pe-rils be-neath, All the toff-ees I chewed, And the sweet, stick-y food, Oh, I wish I’d looked af-ter me teeth. The words that rhyme are underlined and the syllables are separated so you can see the pronunciation more clearly.

Poem reading – “Oh I wish I’d looked after me teeth!” Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth, And spotted the perils beneath, All the toffees I chewed, And the sweet, sticky food, Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth. I wish I’d been that much more willin’ When I had more tooth there than fillin’ To pass up gobstoppers From respect to me choppers, And to buy something else with me shillin’.

When I think of the lollies I licked, And the liquorice allsorts I picked, Sherbet dabs, big and little, All that hard peanut brittle, My conscience gets horribly pricked. My mother, she told me no end, ‘If you got a tooth, you got a friend’, I was young then, and careless, My toothbrush was hairless, I never had much time to spend.

Oh I showed them the toothpaste all right, I flashed it about late at night, But up-and-down brushin’ And pokin’ and fussin’ Didn’t seem worth the time – I could bite! If I’d known I was paving the way To cavities, caps and decay, The murder of fillin’s, Injections and drillin’s, I’d have thrown all me sherbert away.

So I lay in the old dentist’s chair, And I gaze up his nose in despair, And his drill it do whine, In these molars of mine, ‘Two amalgum, ’ he’ll say, ‘for in there. ’ How I laughed at my mother’s false teeth, As they foamed in the waters beneath, But now comes the reckonin’ It’s me they are beckonin’ Oh I wish I’d looked after me teeth!

VOCABULARY Use your dictionary to translate any words from the poem that you don’t know 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. perils willin’ (willing) fillin’ (tooth filling) gobstoppers – hard, ball-shaped sugar candy ‘me choppers’ – my teeth ‘me shillin’ – my shilling – an old word for currency = 12 pence – the currency of the UK ‘my conscience gets pricked’ – I feel guilty careless 9. brushin’ – brushing (my teeth) 10. pokin’ – poking around in my mouth 11. fussin’ – fussing – getting upset 12. cavities – holes in your teeth 13. ‘paving the way’ – getting ready for something 14. whine – cry in pain or upset 15. molars – back teeth 16. amalgum – a metal filling in teeth 17. foamed – bubbled in water 18. ‘the reckonin’ – the bad result of not brushing your teeth 19. beckonin’ – beckoning - please come here

Comprehension Questions ◦ 1. What was wrong with the poet’s eating habits? ◦ 2. What are: ◦ (a) gobstoppers? ◦ (b) choppers? ◦ 3. How do you know that the poet didn’t clean her teeth properly? ◦ 4. What were her feelings when she was in the dentist’s chair? ◦ 5. How did the poet feel about her mother’s false teeth? ◦ 6. At the end of the poem, did you feel sorry for Pam Ayres or not? Why?