In the poem “Last Night I Dreamed of Chickens”, Jack Prelutsky creates a very humorous and wacky sense. He does so by rhyming his words, which makes it seem light, and not serious. He repeats himself many times, and creates alliteration that makes the poem feel catchy, and almost musical.
One way he makes this poem feel almost like a song is rhyming. Rhyming can generally make you want to sing a poem, not just recite it. Prelutsky uses rhyming in many different places, using words such as “see, and me”. These two words are rhymed in the phrase,
“there were chickens, chickens, chickens for as far as I could see… when I woke today, I noticed there were eggs on top of me.”
There is a pattern to his rhymes. Every other line, he makes two
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The narrator lists everything these chickens were doing, using the phrase “they were” 9 times! However, it doesn’t make the poem monotonous, it creates the sense that each time the narrator says it, they are getting, more, and more exasperated! You can completely imagine their voice getting louder, and it will make you laugh. The repetition in the poem keeps it going until the very end. It was a decisive tool to use on this poem, and it worked great.
One last tool he picks from his toolbox is alliteration. The alliteration in this poem is used prominent places, to cause this useful tool stand out. These examples of alliteration are used in the listing of the chickens acts, such as “they were standing on my stomach”, or, “they were pecking at my pillow”. This placement is used where the other words are not important, so as to bring the alliterated words out to stand in front. Alliteration helps a lot in hooking the reader, by making the poem sound catchy.
All in all, in this catchy and hilarious poem, Jack Prelutsky skillfully uses the special tools he has in his toolbox to make this poem funny, and like a song. He uses rhyming to create a sing-songy tone, repetition to make almost a crescendo, and alliteration to catch the reader. His poem is sure to appeal to many readers not through universal topics, but through humor and a wacky sense that is sure to leave many