If you’re old enough to recognize these poems, you’re at least 60. I remember two of them, and both have the same last line. Your task is to supply the last line, which is the same for both quatrains.
But don’t look at any of the answers in the comments before you guess. I suspect that because we have a “golden years” demographic, the right answer will come soon.
These are from my memory, though I suppose you can find the answers somewhere on the web. No Googling!
Poem#1 (my favorite):
Cattle crossing
Please go slow
Because that old cow
Is some bull’s beau. . .
Poem #2 (this should provide a clue):
In this vale
Of toil and sin
Your head grows bald
But not your chin. . .
Burma Shave
Burma-Shave
“Burma Shave” I remember them well from road trips along Hwy 66 from Los Angeles to Iowa to visit grandparents. Always a contest to be the first to see them.
She kissed the hairbrush
By mistake
She thought it was
Her husband Jake
Burma Shave
Burma shave!
Burma Shave!
The blackened forest smoulders
yet / because he flipped a cigarette.
Ben met Anna
Made a hit
Neglected beard
Ben-Anna Split!
BURMA SHAVE
I used to have a book titled Verse By The Side Of The Road which was a history of the Burma Shave signs and included a comprehensive list of the poems.
I wanted to say that!
I actually wrote it in a comment recently.
I noticed shortly afterwards someone else did too.
Burma Shave
Ben met Anna
Made a hit
Neglected beard
Ben-Anna split …
Oh, sorry — I see someone posted the same one a few moments before I did. Here is another:
Round the curve
Lickety split
Nice car
Wasn’t it? …
He lit a match
To check gas tank
That’s why they call him
Skinless Frank
Burma Shave
morbid, but I really did see that one when I was kid, just the right age for it to stick.
I have no idea, though I’ve certainly heard of Burma Shave. That just shows you that we never went anywhere when I was a kid.
Did not have these in Canada I guess, but I did find a site with 90 of these poems.
Not too sure if links are allowed or work properly but here goes:
http://thewhynot100.blogspot.com/2015/06/90-brilliant-burma-shave-signs.html
My favorite was #29:
HENRY VIII
SURE HAD TROUBLE
SHORT TERM WIVES
LONG TERM STUBBLE
Curiously, I just remembered one that is not among the 90:
If you drink don’t drive
If you drive don’t drink
Car in the junk heap
You in the clink
And many thanks
For the link
MAD Magazine used to parody them.
BEER CANS ALONG THE ROAD
ARE UGLY MANY SAY
BUT AT NIGHT, REFLECTING BRIGHT
THEY SAFELY GUIDE THE WAY.
Once I figured out that the parodies were of real serial billboards, I took comfort that MAD’s “usual gang of idiots” was allowing me to enjoy yet another morsel of American culture that never found its way into Canada.
Heh — I don’t remember seeing any Burma Shave signs, but I immediately recognized the MAD parody.
The signs were carefully spaced to account for the speed limits on the pre-interstate national highways, and each line was kept brief so as to not overly distract drivers’ attention.
I don’t believe there are any more lines. These little poems are complete as is. They are meant 4-line quatrains not 5-line limericks.
The 2nd one sounds like a Burma-Shave ad that used to be posted sequentially along the highway. It is obviously commercial, to sell shaving cream.
“If you’re old enough to recognize these poems, you’re at least 60.” … and grew up in the United States, of course.
I’ve heard of the Burma Shave highway ads, but only because Bill Bryson mentioned them in one of his books.
Being from the UK I had no clue, but it was not beyond my Google-fu.
OK, I’ll play:
Don’t lose your head
To save a minute
You need your head
Your brains are in it
Burma Shave
Burma-Shave!
If I didn’t know better I’d say you’ve been reading the Zeroes And Fives series of posts in my blog, almost all of which have included 2-3 Burma-Shave jingles. The one that begins “Within this vale” was the Odells’ favorite and is mine, as well.
“If you’re old enough to recognize these poems, you’re at least 60. ”
I’ve been misgenerationed!
Men with whiskers
‘Neath their noses
Ought to kiss
Like Eskimoses
Don’t try passing
On a slope
Unless you have
A periscope
Ihis one is either Burma Shave or maybe Ogden Nash —
He was right, dead right
As he sped along
But he’s just as dead
As if he’d been dead wrong
Thanks for the memories.