The Poetry Corner

Nursery Rhyme. CCXVII. Riddles.

By Unknown

[The allusion to Oliver Cromwell satisfactorily fixes the date of the riddle to belong to the seventeenth century. The answer is, a rainbow.] Purple, yellow, red, and green, The king cannot reach it nor the queen; Nor can old Noll, whose power's so great: Tell me this riddle while I count eight.