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Arts & Entertainment

Dear LAist, Do you Know that Lewis Carrol poem?

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Dear LAist,

I'm taking a summer class in poetry at, well, never mind. What can you tell me about the Lewis Carrol poem that I can write about on my last essay? Here it is if you don't know it.

"How Doth the Little Crocodile" How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!

First of all there are two L's in Carroll.

Now what I would probably talk about is that back in those days little kids had to memorize poems in school and one of them that little Lewis had to read was probably "Against Idleness and Mischief" by Isaac Watts. Which goes a little something like this:

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower! How skillfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be passed,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last

So Carroll took the meter and the style and turned it on its ear, substituting the dilligent insect for the mysteriously friendly croc.What I liked about the parody is Carroll didn't take the easy way out and riff on the Satan image introduced by Watts, a famous pastor and hymn writer in London. Instead Carroll kept it more natural than super-natural, which, if you ask me, helps make his poem even scarier because a coy reptile is creepier than a mythological creature.
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