Joshua's First Poetry Memorization

One, two, buckle my shoe
Three, four, knock at the door
Five, six, pick up sticks
Seven, eight, lay them straight
Nine, ten, a big fat hen
Eleven, twelve, dig and delve
Thirteen, fourteen, maids a-courting
Fifteen, sixteen, maids in the kitchen
Seventeen, eighteen, maids in waiting
Nineteen, twenty, my plate's empty

For his second birthday, Joshua got a board book and puzzle for the "1,2 Buckle my shoe" poem. (Thanks Clintons!) I personally didn't know the poem continued for numbers 11-20. Probably because the poem STINKS! It doesn't rhyme and it's not very creative with all those maids in there. BUT, Joshua loves it. He memorized the whole thing and wants to put together the puzzle many, MANY times every day. There are about 20 pieces and I can put them all in place in under a minute. I wasn't always that fast, but the saying is TRUE! Practise makes perfect. You can imagine my absolute delight when he started playing with the puzzle ALL*BY*HIMSELF! He can do the whole thing without any help. The puzzle travels from room to room, and hours of entertainment have been derived from this thoughtful gift.

I looked on line to find some background history on this poem. Part of this rhyme forms the most famous of the English "Lace Tells", or short songs sung by the makers of bobbin lace as an aid in this repetitive work. That accounts for the 1-10 section. But who made up the last part, and WHY???? There have got to be better word choices that rhyme with twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, and twenty. Here are some of my finds:

12: delve, shelve, helve (if those are the only choices, I guess delve is acceptable)

4,6,8 teen: canteen, caffeine, saltine, marine, routine, protein, praline (all of those are better choices!!)