Reading Level: Grade 3
Topics: Wacky Weirdness, Wordplay
Poetic Techniques: Idioms, Lyric & Dramatic Poems, Repetition, Wordplay
Word Count: 84

About This Poem

When you repeat sounds within a word or phrase, it is called “reduplication.” Whether you are repeating the whole sound, such as “booboo” or “gogo,” or just the rhyming sounds, like “downtown” or “walkie-talkie,” or just the consonants, as in “ping pong” or “zigzag,” these are different types of reduplication.

When you combine two rhyming words into a single word, such as “easy-peasy,” “super-duper,” and “loosey-goosey” this is a kind of reduplication called a “close rhyme” (because the rhymes are close together).

I started this poem with the idea of reversing “upside-down” and making it “downside-up.” From there, I realized I could also reverse “inside-out” to make it “outside-in.” As I started adding more lines to the poem, I decided to reverse a whole bunch of reduplicated phrases and see what would happen. I hope you like the result.

By the way, I first started exploring close rhymes and other reduplications when I wrote the poem The Tighty-Whitey Spider. If you would also like to explore more (see what I did there?), I have a list of close rhymes and reduplications here. If you think of any that aren’t on my list, please let me know so I can add them!

From the book The Elephant Repairman

Use This Poem

Would you like to use this poem in your classroom? Would you like permission to reprint, record, recite or broadcast this poem, or set it to music? Please click on one of the following links for permissions and reprint rights information:

• Webmasters
• Students
• Teachers
• Publishers, editors and anthologists