Why Children Love Nonsense Poems: The Story of Flimple
- Mark Bird
- 21 hours ago
- 2 min read
The Rules of Flimple
The rules of Flimple
are really simple:
First find a pond
a stream or lake
that’s flapping full
of ducks and drakes
Each time they Quack!
Roll on your back
Flap both your arms
Kick half a leg
Pretend to lay
a *cuboid egg
(*please understand
you will be banned
if you lay eggs
like pyramids
or anything
resembling squids)
When you’ve laid ten
Stand up again
First holler Moo!
Then Crackerjack!
Locate a cow
Teach it to Quack!
But if the cow
exclaims Meow!
or Cluck! or Baa!
or Oink! Bow Wow!
The rules dictate
You’ve lost, you’re out
However though
The rule to know
If your cow Quacks!
it’s really simple
to win the game
you just shout Flimple!
Mark Bird
When I was teaching, one of my favourite things about children was their ability to invent games from absolutely nothing. Give them a playground, a patch of grass or a puddle, and before long there would be a complicated set of rules involving spies, dragons, secret passwords or some entirely new sport that nobody had ever heard of before. The Rules of Flimple grew out of that wonderful ability children have to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Flimple is, of course, a completely ridiculous game. The rules involve ducks, cows, cuboid eggs and shouting the word "Flimple!" at precisely the right moment. Yet beneath the nonsense lies something I have always loved about poetry: permission to imagine. There are no right answers, no sensible explanations and no need for the game to make the slightest bit of sense.
I hope this funny nonsense poem encourages children to invent their own bizarre games, make up their own rules and let their imaginations run wild. After all, who knows? Somewhere in a playground not too far away, a cow might already be learning how to quack.
Nonsense Poetry Lesson Worksheet:
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