How Little Red Riding Hood Came To Be Eaten Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCBDDEFFEGG HHIJJIKKLFFLMN OOPFFPQQRSSRTU VVWJJWIIXYYXZZ A2A2B2CCB2FFC2DDC2II D2D2E2CCE2F2G2H2I2I2 H2I2I2 CB2CB2CB2Most worthy of praise | A |
Were the virtuous ways | A |
Of Little Red Riding Hood's Ma | B |
And no one was ever | C |
More cautious and clever | C |
Than Little Red Riding Hood's Pa | B |
They never misled | D |
For they meant what they said | D |
And would frequently say what they meant | E |
And the way she should go | F |
They were careful to show | F |
And the way that they showed her she went | E |
For obedience she was effusively thanked | G |
And for anything else she was carefully spanked | G |
- | |
It thus isn't strange | H |
That Red Riding Hood's range | H |
Of virtues so steadily grew | I |
That soon she won prizes | J |
Of different sizes | J |
And golden encomiums too | I |
As a general rule | K |
She was head of her school | K |
And at six was so notably smart | L |
That they gave her a cheque | F |
For reciting The Wreck | F |
Of the Hesperus wholly by heart | L |
And you all will applaud her the more I am sure | M |
When I add that this money she gave to the poor | N |
- | |
At eleven this lass | O |
Had a Sunday school class | O |
At twelve wrote a volume of verse | P |
At thirteen was yearning | F |
For glory and learning | F |
To be a professional nurse | P |
To a glorious height | Q |
The young paragon might | Q |
Have grown if not nipped in the bud | R |
But the following year | S |
Struck her smiling career | S |
With a dull and a sickening thud | R |
I have shed a great tear at the thought of her pain | T |
And must copy my manuscript over again | U |
- | |
Not dreaming of harm | V |
One day on her arm | V |
A basket she hung It was filled | W |
With jellies and ices | J |
And gruel and spices | J |
And chicken legs carefully grilled | W |
And a savory stew | I |
And a novel or two | I |
She'd persuaded a neighbor to loan | X |
And a hot water can | Y |
And a Japanese fan | Y |
And a bottle of eau de cologne | X |
And the rest of the things that your family fill | Z |
Your room with whenever you chance to be ill | Z |
- | |
She expected to find | A2 |
Her decrepit but kind | A2 |
Old Grandmother waiting her call | B2 |
But the visage that met her | C |
Completely upset her | C |
It wasn't familiar at all | B2 |
With a whitening cheek | F |
She started to speak | F |
But her peril she instantly saw | C2 |
Her Grandma had fled | D |
And she'd tackled instead | D |
Four merciless Paws and a Maw | C2 |
When the neighbors came running the wolf to subdue | I |
He was licking his chops and Red Riding Hood's too | I |
- | |
At this terrible tale | D2 |
Some readers will pale | D2 |
And others with horror grow dumb | E2 |
And yet it was better | C |
I fear he should get her | C |
Just think what she might have become | E2 |
For an infant so keen | F2 |
Might in future have been | G2 |
A woman of awful renown | H2 |
Who carried on fights | I2 |
For her feminine rights | I2 |
As the Mare of an Arkansas town | H2 |
She might have continued the crime of her 'teens | I2 |
And come to write verse for the Big Magazines | I2 |
- | |
- | |
The Moral There's nothing much glummer | C |
Than children whose talents appall | B2 |
One much prefers those who are dumber | C |
But as for the paragons small | B2 |
If a swallow cannot make a summer | C |
It can bring on a summary fall | B2 |
Guy Wetmore Carryl
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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