| Note from Joe: Here’s a poem whose first verse is known to everybody. But it’s trivial without the rest of the poem, which nobody seems to have ever heard. If the poem seems childish, there’s a good reason: it was intended to be read aloud to children. The first verse has been parodied countless times. |
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is set,
And the grass with dew is wet,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the traveler in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see where to go
If you did not twinkle so.
In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark
Lights the traveler in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
My favorite two parodies of this poem’s first verse are:
(To be recited aloud very quickly)
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How you wonder who I am.
Way up in the sky so low,
You’re a better man than I am, Old Black Joe.
—— Spike Jones
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
I know exactly what you are:
An incandescent ball of gas
Compressed into a solid mass.
—— anonymous