If all the World were Paper
Original Text:
Edward F. Rimbault, "Could we with ink," Notes and Queries 229 (March 18, 1854): 256.
1If all the world were paper,
2 And all the sea were ink;
3If all the trees were bread and cheese,
4 How should we do for drink?
5If all the world were sand'o,
6 Oh then what should we lack'o,
7If as they say there were no clay,
8 How should we take tobacco?
9If all our vessels ran'a,
10 If none but has a crack'a;
11If Spanish apes ate all the grapes,
12 How should we do for sack'a?
13If friars had no bald pates,
14 Nor nuns had no dark cloisters;
15If all the seas were beans and pease,
16 How should we do for oysters?
17If there had been no projects,
18 Nor none that did great wrongs;
19If fiddlers shall turn players all,
20 How should we do for songs?
21If all things were eternal,
22 And nothing their end bringing;
23If this should be, then how should we
24 Here make an end of singing?
Publication Start Year:
1640
Publication Notes:
Wits Recreations (1640) titles this nursery rhyme "Interrogativa Cantilena.".
RPO poem Editors:
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition:
2011
Rhyme:
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