The Ants and the Grasshopper — Nursery Rhyme Lyrics
The Ants were employing a fine winter's day in drying grain collected in the summer time. A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed by and earnestly begged for a little food. The Ants inquired of him: "Why did you not treasure up food during the summer?" He replied: "I had not leisure; I passed the days in singing." They then said: "If you were foolish enough to sing all the summer, you must dance supperless to bed in the winter."
Idleness brings want.
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Learning from "The Ants and the Grasshopper"
Nursery rhymes are some of the best teachers of rhythm and rhyme. "The Ants and the Grasshopper" uses 2 lines to create a memorable verse — proof that effective poetry doesn't need to be long. Pay attention to the meter: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is what makes the rhyme stick in your head.
Songwriters and poets can borrow these patterns. Try writing your own lyrics using the same rhyme scheme and line length as this nursery rhyme. You can also use words from the poem above as starting points — click any word to find rhymes or look up its definition, then build from there.
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- What are the words to The Ants and the Grasshopper?
- The lyrics to The Ants and the Grasshopper are: The Ants were employing a fine winter's day in drying grain collected in the summer time. A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed by and earnestly begged for a little food. The Ants inquired of him: "Why did you not treasure up food during the summer?" He replied: "I had not leisure; I passed the days in singing." They then said: "If you were foolish enough to sing all the summer, you must dance supperless to bed in the winter." / Idleness brings want.
- How many lines does The Ants and the Grasshopper have?
- "The Ants and the Grasshopper" has 2 lines of verse.
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