How Doth The Little Crocodile By Lewis Carroll: Poem Analysis

Lewis Carroll “I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then” (Lewis Carroll). Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who is more commonly knowns as Lewis Carroll, was born on the 27th of January in 1832. He was the oldest boy out of his ten other siblings and he loved to entertain them by amusing them with magic tricks and logic games. When Lewis was only twelve years old he created his own newspaper, “Rectory Magazine” that he and his family contributed poems to. As a boy, Lewis attended Richmond School in Yorkshire. After his years at Richmond, he attended Rugby School in England. Lewis did not enjoy his four years of public schooling, mostly due to his natural born shyness and because he was subjected to some bullying when he

This poem is about a tricky crocodile that likes to lure fish into his mouth with a welcoming smile. Carroll uses personification, imagery, and metaphors to give the crocodile a lifelike personality and a fun feel to the poem. Carroll depicts the crocodile as cunning and sly. Many of Carroll's poem’s use the same rhyme scheme, which is abab. I thought this was a good poem and I enjoyed the rhyming and the imagery throughout the poem (Carroll, Lewis). Another one of Carroll’s poems is “Tweedledum and Tweedledee” which is a poem about two young boys who are about to start a battle with each other, but they are both scared off when a crow flies down near them. This poem uses similes, metaphors, rhyme, and imagery to show that Tweedledum and Tweedledee are feisty and contentious. Like the poem, “How Doth the Little Crocodile”, the rhyme scheme is the same as before which is abab. I thought the poem was entertaining and had an appealing storyline (Carroll, Lewis

He uses wordplay, imagery, and personification to make the poem interesting. “Jabberwocky” has a unique and very creative feel to it and I enjoyed reading it because of how imaginative it is. The poem has the same rhyme scheme as seen in many of Lewis Carroll’s poems, which is abab (Carroll, Lewis Poetry for). “Rules and Regulation” is another poem written by Lewis Carroll. This is a poem about a list of rules and laws that Carroll came up with that are amusing and not very difficult to follow. In this literary work Lewis uses alliteration, imagery and rhyme to give it a fun and foolish feel. This is enjoyable because of the nonsense side and how entertaining it is to read. Unlike most of Lewis’s other poems, the rhyme scheme is aabb (Carroll, Lewis Poetry for Young). After reading a critique titled “First loves from Jabberwocky to After- Apple picking” by Joyce Carol Oates, it is very clear that she enjoyed Lewis Carroll’s books and poems very much. Oates enjoys Lewis Carroll’s works so much that she considers it “the greatest nonsense poem in English” (Oates). She said that she was “fascinated by the bizarre and secret language and by the poems dreamlike violent action” (Oates). She enjoys Lewis Carroll's writing style and the mystical and magical side of all poetry