There they sat on the deck,
The deck of the old ship.
Cannonballs just placed there,
Placed there in a pyramid
On a plate of brass.
They sat there ready to be fired,
Fired from the cannon.
The plate was called a monkey,
The name of many holders
Back in the day.
There was a problem though
Occasionally it got cold,
So cold that the monkey got smaller
And the cannonballs fell off.
So we ended up with the saying
That is used often now,
In very cold weather
As we say it is cold enough,
Cold enough to freeze the balls,
Freeze the balls off a brass monkey.