Riddles + 

I have only one foot, but thousands of toes; + 

My one foot stands well, but never goes; + 

I’ve a good many arms, if you count them all, + 

But hundreds of fingers, large and small; + 

From the ends of my fingers my beauty grows; + 

I breathe with my hair, and I drink with my toes; + 

I grow bigger and bigger about the waist + 

Although I am always very tight laced; + 

None e’er saw me eat⁠—I’ve no mouth to bite! + 

Yet I eat all day, and digest all night. + 

In the summer, with song I shake and quiver, + 

But in winter I fast and groan and shiver. + 

There is a plough that hath no share, + 

Only a coulter that parteth fair; + 

But the ridges they rise + 

To a terrible size + 

Or ever the coulter comes near to tear: + 

The horses and ridges fierce battle make; + 

The horses are safe, but the plough may break. + 

Seed cast in its furrows, or green or sear, + 

Will lift to the sun neither blade nor ear: + 

Down it drops plumb + 

Where no spring-times come, + 

Nor needeth it any harrowing gear; + 

Wheat nor poppy nor blade has been found + 

Able to grow on the naked ground. + 

Who is it that sleeps like a top all night, + 

And wakes in the morning so fresh and bright + 

That he breaks his bed as he gets up, + 

And leaves it smashed like a china cup? + 

I’ve a very long nose, but what of that? + 

It is not too long to lie on a mat! + 

I have very big jaws, but never get fat: + 

I don’t go to church, and I’m not a church rat! + 

I’ve a mouth in my middle my food goes in at, + 

Just like a skate’s⁠—that’s a fish that’s a flat. + 

In summer I’m seldom able to breathe, + 

But when winter his blades in ice doth sheathe + 

I swell my one lung, I look big and I puff, + 

And I sometimes hiss.⁠—There, that’s enough! + 