Augustus

[jean nurse]

When I was a child we had encyclopaedia that included a childrens poem which began"Augustus was a chubby lad,fat ruddy cheeks Augustus had....."and it was about a fat little boy who refused his food and wasted away!!! I know this isa peculiar sounding poem but try as I may I have never been able to find it in later years. Has anyone ever heard of it and does anyone know the whole poem?

[ursula62]

A Victorian cautionary tale - I remember it well. You can find the words here: http://www.soupsong.com/iaugustu.html

[islandgirl]

Most volumes of Nonsense Verse have this and other similar cautionary tales in them. I loved all these as a kid!

[Suti]

Heinrich Hoffmann (1809-1894)

The Story of Augustus who would Not have any soup.

Augustus was a chubby lad;

Fat ruddy cheeks Augustus had

And everybody saw with joy

The plump and hearty, healthy boy.

He ate and drank as he was told,

And never let his soup get cold.

But one day, one cold winter's day,

He screamed out, "Take the soup away!

O take the nasty soup away!

I won't have any soup today."

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Next day, now look, the picture shows

How lank and lean Augustus grows!

Yet, though he feels so weak and ill,

The naughty fellow cries out still

"Not any soup for me, I say:

O take the nasty soup away!

I won't have any soup today!"

-------------------

The third day comes: Oh what a sin!

To make himself so pale and thin.

Yet when the soup is put on table,

He screams, as loud as he is able,

"Not any soup for me, I say:

O take the nasty soup away!

I WON'T have any soup today."

--------------------------

Look at him, now the fourth day's come!

He scarcely weighs a sugar-plum;

He's like a little bit of thread,

And, on the fifth day, he was - dead!

[Marshall2]

Jean, here I am in 08 wondering about Augustus. I knew that poem when I was a little girl and tried to remember it. I googled it and got you. Did you ever find the workd?
[e-mail]

[Marshall2]

Wow, I scrolled down and somebody had entered it. Thank you.