St. Michael's
A Resource for Orthodox Elementary Education
Santa Rosa, CA
A Jingle of Words
    This has been a good vocabulary poem.  The children do not simply recite this poem, they act it out - especially the words which demonstrate onomatopoeia.  When we have visitors, the students often want to ask them this question.  The answer is always, "Yes."

A Jingle of Words

Elizabeth Scott Stam


Don’t you love the common words
In usage all the time;
Words that paint a masterpiece,
Words that beat a rhyme,
Words that sing a melody,
Words that leap and run,
Words that sway a multitude,
Or stir the heart of one?

Don’t you love the lively words -
Flicker, leap and flash,
Tumble, stumble, pitch and toss,
Dive, and dart and dash,
Scramble, pirouette and prance,
Hurtle, hurdle, fling,
Waddle, toddle, trot and dance,
Soar and snatch and swing?

Don’t you love the lengthy words -
Subterranean,
Artificial, propagate,
Neapolitan,
Revelation, elevate,
Ambidextrous,
Undenominational,
Simultaneous?

Don’t you love the noisy words -
Clatter, pop and bang,
Scrape and creak and snarl and snort,
Crash, and clash and clang,
Crackle, cackle, yowl and yap,
Snicker, snare and sneeze,
Screech and bellow, slash and howl,
Whistle, whine and wheeze?

Don’t you love the colorful -
Amber, rose and gold,
Orchid, orange and cerise,
Crimson, emerald,
Purple, plum and lavender,
Peach and Prussian blue,
Turquoise, matrix, jade and jet,
Hazel, honeydew?

Yes, with just the common words
In usage everywhere,
You can capture incidents
Beautiful and rare.
In words you have a weapon
More mighty than a gun;
You can sway a multitude
Or stir the heart of one.