Nursery Rhymes with Riddles

Nursery rhymes are traditional verses for children.

Here are some which contain riddles, a challenge for your students:

1.- As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives.
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits:
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were there going to St. Ives?

2.- Black I am and much admired.
Men may seek me till they are tired;
I weary horse and weary man,
Tell me this riddle if you can.

3.- What God never sees;
What the king seldom sees;
What we see every day;
Read my riddle, I pray.

4.- As I was walking in a field of wheat,
I picked up something good to eat;
Neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor bone,
I kept it till it ran alone.

5.- There was a king met a king
In a narrow lane; 
Said the king to the king, 
Where have you been?
I have been a hunting
The buck and the doe.
Will you lend me your dog?
Yes, I will do so;
Call upon him, call upon him.
What is his name?
I have told you twice
And won't tell you again.

KEY

1.- one; 2.- coal; 3.- equal; 4.- an egg; 5.- Bin

Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, edited by Iona and Peter Opie, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1973.