The Dirigible Balloon
Poetry for Children

Jonathan Smonathan

Listen to Jonathan reading his poem ...
Jonathan Smonathan lives on his own,
And loves nothing more than a whinge and a moan.
He gripes about weather, he groans about food,
He grumbles and mutters whatever his mood.
But the thing that he whines about most of the time,
Is the fact that his name is a name that won’t rhyme.
Nothing you see, can be rhymed with a Jonathan
(Well, nothing that is, accept of course Smonathan).
He’s jealous of Peter’s and Sheila’s and Greg’s
And Rohit’s and Michael’s and Asha’s and Meg’s.
It’s silly, he knows, but raging like fire,
A rhyme for his name is his burning desire.
He doesn’t want many, he just wants a few,
Five or six words that rhymed nicely would do.
He’s hunted, he’s rummaged, he’s searched all around,
But the words that he’s seeking just cannot be found.
He’s even resorted to new word creation,
Like ‘ponathan’ (meaning a foul-smelling station).
Or ‘tonathan’ (carrots that look like small toes).
Or ‘wronathan (someone who’s cross when it snows).
But he’s sent them to ‘Head of New Words’ Greta Grot,
Who’s shaken her head and said, “certainly not.”
So alas he seems destined to live his whole life
Unhappy, despondent, in simmering strife.
Poor Jonathan Smonathan,
If only he knew,
On his record of birth,
His name’s down as Hugh.

About the Writer


Jonathan Sellars

Jonathan lives in Greenwich, England. He is severely obsessed with writing poems, primarily ones that rhyme. His work has featured in The Caterpillar and Parakeet magazine and his first picture book, Polly Plum: Brave Adventurer, comes out in Spring 2022. He has two small children, neither of whom can read or write poetry. He's not worried about that. Yet.