Crown the King with Carrot Tops
Crown the king with carrot tops,
Dress him in sateen,
Give him lots of licorice drops,
With suckers in between.
For he’s a king with lots of power
And awful, awful fierce,
He kills a pirate every hour
And washes in his tears.
Full Version:
Crown the king with carrot tops,
Dress him in sateen,
Give him lots of licorice drops,
With suckers in between.
For he’s a king with lots of power
And awful, awful fierce,
He kills a pirate every hour
And washes in his tears.
He rides a charger ten feet high,
A dashing, dappled gray;
Has ginger pop and lemon pie
For breakfast every day.
So get a royal canopy,
The finest ever seen,
And whiskers for his majesty,
And tresses for the queen.
First published in The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes (1918).
There’s something wonderfully serious about the way children play at being royal. One minute they’re sharing candy, the next, they’ve crowned someone “His Majesty” with a carrot-top wreath and declared war on pirates. It’s all make-believe, but the pride and ceremony are real enough to make you smile.
Blanche Fisher Wright’s picture catches that feeling perfectly — a homemade crown, a stick for a scepter, and the kind of confidence only a child can pull off. The rhyme itself is pure fun: a mix of fantasy, snacks, and bossy imagination. It’s what happens when the world still fits inside your living room, and being king just means having the biggest slice of lemon pie.
