Check out the page of Rhymed Translations of European lyrics (c 1100-1900)!

For tumble rhymes in English, this is one of two known sites on the web. The other is hosted by Boris Hasselblatt. For a representative German site, try Jo Proepper's Schuettelreime.

Contributed Tumble Rhymes

by Anne Cottrell

TO THE CAT

O Long of Claw, should you be rough
you will be met with a rebuff.

THE ACTRESS DEFENDS HER PRIVACY

From dressing room, the prying fan
was driven with a frying pan.

by Grace Hill

COMPLIMENT

This morning to the chimes I rose,
delightedly your rhymes I chose.

by Phyllis Smith

<ottojms@wenet.net>

HAPPY (to Otto)

In the New Year I want you near.

SUMMER IDYLL

Small girls adorned in daisy leis
Drink cambric tea on lazy days.

COMMUTER

Although you'd rather stay in bed
You have to cross the Bay instead.
You'd have an internet commute, poor
wanderer, if you'd compute more.

PARANOIA

Are Mai Tais really Trader Vic's
Or alien invader tricks?

TAB EVADERS

Those who don't find paying pleasant
Get out of it by playing peasant.

WHAT FLU IN?

Here's ache for your head and pain for your chest:
You are the food chain for your pest!

Though math could be a pack of lies,
at least it has no lack of "pi"s.

The flagelants, who savor fault,
leave wounds unbalmed: they favor salt.

The cannibal was mad to lunch
And so he had a lad to munch.

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

In tornado weather, Fate
may treat you as a featherweight.

STONE AGE ROMEO

Neanderthal, that furry caver,
Found it hard to curry favor.
She complained he wouldn't shave
And had a club he shouldn't wave.
He held his offering high (the bear)
Then dragged her with him by the hair.

NATIVITY SCENE

Mary glowed with saintly fire
While Joseph watched, just faintly sire.

HUMAN INTEREST BEATS SPECIAL EFFECTS

A simple well-told panic tale
Makes digital Titanic pale.

DRIED-UP WORMS

Better wait
For wetter bait.

CROSS-EYED SURGEON

He didn't quite have sight direction
So he missed the right dissection:
Due to misdirected sight
His patients weren't dissected right.

LONESOME BILINGUAL

Alone and crying in my beer:
Ach! war' mein Liebling nur bei mir.

AROUND THE WORLD IN WEIGHTY DAZE

For hungry folk they'll stack a pan
Of curry on rice in Pakistan;
And for a Frencher treat, a buff'll
Tell you, "You can't beat a truffle."
While foreign food might stir a fake
Gourmet, I much prefer a steak.

"I HAVE NO NEED OF THAT HYPOTHESIS."

We are Skeptics, hailed and vaunted
Mockers of the veiled and haunted!

HAVE SOME OF MY TAILGATE CHILI!

Much is to be gained by passing
Up the beans, if pained by gassing.

LEND ME YOUR EAR

Hollyfield won the bitter fight,
Though Tyson had the fitter bite.

MONTREAL POLAR BEAR CLUB

We got an icy water shock. The river's
cold enough to give a rock the shivers.

BEE'S VIEW OF HONEY HARVEST

If you don't leave our hives much larder
It will make our lives much harder.

THE FLIGHT OF THE HANDKNIT BALACLAVA

Shall not a skiing hatter mourn
her cap, blown off the Matterhorn?

A WASHED-UP DESERT CAMPAIGN

The guards at poorly shaded forts
Wore nothing but their faded shorts.

ICECREAM (gelato, per favore) AND BATHROOM (gabinetto)

You can visit new towns
If you know these two nouns.

RURAL UNREST

They set the landlord's shed afire:
The roasted chicken fed a shire.

YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU

Miserly and lean, he's grieving
For the stacks of green he's leaving.

A THONG OF LITTLE VALUE

Baseball buffs are blind to beachers
since their butts they bind to bleachers.

YE OLDE INNE

Here they roast the fearsome bear--
It's served with other beersome fare.

PUPPY IN TRAINING

Just maybe
he'll obey me.

LOSING WEIGHT WITH JENNY CRAIG

Fee diet?
Defy it!

Calories are plain measure
Of dieters' main pleasure.

WOLF SONG

They carol for us
A feral chorus.

ASPIRATIONS

Try to breed a sable lily?
That idea I'd label silly.
But I have tried to fill a stable
With unicorns. They're still a fable.

SICK OF MANUSCRIPTS

Listen to his teary wail:
"Oh no! Another weary tale!"

INJUNCTION

I will not have that birdy stoned--
The little thing's not sturdy-boned!

GET YOUR QUARTERBACK

When he stopped being great and fumbled,
His teammates shared his fate and grumbled.

SOUPER CHEF

A well-read cook bases
His stock on book cases.

O BANKER, HEAR OUR PRAYER

Just for you to lend a bit 'll
Help, if you can bend a little.

IN THE RING

The matador, who's getting bored,
Will be, the fans are betting, gored.

DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE

He tried to steer, mumbling,
"M'fine, it's mere stumbling."

WILD PITCH

A ball thrown bad matters
To concussed mad batters.

SCARED STIFF AT GRAND CANYON

He peered into the chasm space,
And medics had a spasm case.

TRAVELS WITH REYNARD

It isn't nice to bind a fox,
So I'm inclined to find a box.

SHAGGY PONY EXPRESS

Those who rode such hurried courses
Had no time for curried horses.

WRINGING CHANGES

To get attention in his Pamper days
A baby may find out that damper pays.

SELF-PORTRAIT

You here observe the tired mumbler
Writing an admired tumbler.
May she keep her breathing sane
Enough to cool her seething brain.

by Kristin Smith

If thinly sliced, the jerkey's tender
Regardless of the turkey's gender.

by unnamed members of the Smith Family

AD IMAGINEM DEI CREAVIT BANANA SLUG

This member of the gastropod's genus
Was made in the image of God's penus.

PET PIG

Once he was a spunky ham
but now he's just a hunk of spam.

Taciturn and crusty, true
Down-easters make a trusty crew.

The ass cares less for grass he's eating
Than for the lady ass he's greeting.

When someone gets the hated fever
it's always me, the fated heaver.

by Sterling Smith

HAREBRAINED CONCLUSION

It was the Tortoise who ran best.
Does this imply we should ban rest?

by Otto Smith

THE IDEAL GRADUATE STUDENT

All the time she would
Do the things we should.

by Boris Hasselblatt

BILINGUAL BAKERY

Gateaux
to go.

by Ben Cottrell

QUICK DRAW

Lara packs
a parallax
revolver.
Her lover
stole her
holster.

KOPF RASIEREN UND PRESTO!

Du bist
Buddhist.

CELEBRITY RERUNS

Some do enjoy their fame anew:
George Bush and Cher, to name a few.

A NOSTALGIC ASTRONOMER

My telescope I'd fain retract,
Could naked eyes contain, refract
An image from the beaming glow,
And bend the starlight's gleaming bow.

IN THE NAME OF WHAT?

DIM VIEW OF LUAU

Pa-tooi!
To poi.

WHEN ASKED FOR A CHRISTMAS RHYME

Einstein would say "Bonne Noel"
But I'll be plain and un-Nobel.

Astronomers seek bliss and Hubble
Amidst the radio's hiss and blubble.

GIVING THE APPROPRIATE JESTER

For Yule:
Your fool.

That Cottrell! He's an imp with language.
From tumble rhymes I limp with anguish!

"You're wrong!," said a caped retorter,
"I'm Batman, and here's my tape recorder!"

from an unnamed contributor

THEY DECONSTRUCT EACH OTHER

Critics joined in holy wedlock
often meet in woely head-lock.
     (suggested by Paul Andrews)

Tumble Rhymes

For regular poetry and verse translation on the web try the Monadnock Review. Some favorite snatches of verse are collected at this site's snatch anthology which you may wish to glance at or add to. The other site for tumble rhymes in English is hosted by Boris Hasselblatt. For rhymes in German, try Jo Proepper's Schuettelreime site.