A New Twist On Pop ! Goes The Weasel '

"Skipping", "humming", "loopity-loops", and "pirouetting" are silly things that everyone has done as a child, including myself. These reminders set me in a time machine back to my favorite days when the only thing important to me was my own happiness. Another less obvious reflection of a puerile mind is the "same story". In this tale of a young girl's game, Sandra Cisneros refers to a pretend play the girls have made up for their Barbie's' to act out. This play is referred to as "the same story" and really hit on what childhood playtime was all about. I remember doing the exact same thing as a child with my brothers (except we were cops and robbers), where we played out the same actions over and over, day after day. Cisneros recognized this to be common to all children and smartly places it for the reader to reflect on their past, as I did on my own.

The poems “A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher” by Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins respectively, depict two different scenarios in which an adult deceives a child/children, which ranges from the sounds of a bird at night, to the history of the world itself. “A Barred Owl” depicts two parents who lie to their daughter about an owl who woke her in the night, while “The History Teacher” involves a man who tries to protect his students by using education as a tool to deceive them. Both poets use diction, imagery, and rhyme to help them convey a certain tone in their poems.

1st Quote: “Now look you. All of you. We danced... And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.

Words that stand out to me are “Randy roosters and operatic hens”, “true songster”, and “swoops, bleats, echoes, rapidly repeated bebops-I mean rebopped bebops-...”. Most of these words are adjectives. The phrase “Randy” is describing the roosters, operatic is describing the hens, “true songster” is describing Bird, and the last quote is describing what Bird’s music sounded like. The language in these words are general and specific, when talking about the last quote, where Bird’s the sound of music is described.

In “A Barred Owl,” Wilbur adopts a playful tone through rhyming: “We tell the wakened child that all she heard/ Was an odd question from a forest bird” (3, 4). The rhyme imitates the style of nursery rhymes, creating a joking tone. The playful tone avoids seriousness and weakens the horror of the owl, which contributes to the poem’s style like a nursery rhyme. Wilbur also euphemizes the owl to help create a nursery style. He does not represent the horrible creature of an owl as a carnivore with sharp claws that hunts during the night, but euphemizes it as a “forest bird” (Wilbur 4). The owl’s representation as a safe forest bird refers its figure to the enthusiastic birds with heavenly sounds in cartoons and story books, which often help the protagonist to overcome difficulties and dangers. Referring to nursery imageries of birds, the euphemism contributes to the poem’s style as a nursery rhyme. Creating a playful tone and a nursery style, Wilbur uses rhymes and euphemism to “domesticate fear” (Wilbur

Repeated onomatopoeic terms again set the scene. We are told that a hunt is in progress, and it is described in descriptive detail. Anderson does not romanticise the scene as the duckling cowers from a ‘fearfully big dog’.

on a hot summer day one will find a lot of people enjoying soda pop, it is well used in the summer as a cool beverage because of its coldness it will sooth ones taste buds leaving one wanting more. Hearing the fizz as one opens, tasting the coolness, and after, feeling the soft sweet drink in ones throat will make one feel fresh and new.

Lastly, Wilbur and Collins use contrasting rhyme schemes to imply that children must be kept uninfluenced and pure in order to flourish in their childhood. In “A Barred Owl”, Wilbur uses a very consistent end rhyme scheme in which he rhymes every two lines, AABBCC to create a playful, childish feeling. The reader can then connect more with

Tone- Jabberwocky appears to have a somewhat humorous tone, considering the nonsensical words used, the brevity of the story, and lack of moral. There is no issue or theme addressed that can be applied as an allegory, unlike The Lorax. However, the entire story of the Lorax is rather darker and more applicable in real life, and the tone is both a call to action for the readers and also rather accusatory towards large factories and companies. However, the Jabberwocky appears to have no clear accusations or calls to action and is a vivid contrast to the dark tone of The Lorax. The Jabberwocky poem’s tone is rather ironic, because it presents a usually serious topic (Defeating a vicious beast) with nonsensical baby words, which makes the author’s intent rather humorous. The quote below showcases an action scene with these nonsense words, which changes the tone from serious too rather humorous.

Our boat is in a square shape so that the pennies can equally balance in each corner and the center. As seen on page 14 the material that makes up the boat are popsticle sticks because they seem to be stronger. If they’re stronger they will be able to hold more pennies. The popsticles have a length of 11 cm, we decided to have this size because we couldn’t add another roll of popsticle sticks since we were going to exceed our budget which was $1, 500.00 (page 12). If we include the propeller, the length of the boat would be 19 cm (page 9), due to the paper clip and wooden stick being added between the straw as seen on page 18. Me and my partner chose this deisgn because we wanted to create an innovative propeller, so we used straws, paper clips,

Green Eggs and Ham is a timeless tale which has remained in both the hearts and minds of readers due to the author’s unique utilization of repetition, imagery, and tone. Throughout the story, the narrator constantly repeats the phrase, “I do not like green eggs and ham” (Seuss 12). The repetition of this phrase, and others of similar meaning, intensifies the character’s distaste while also embedding the significant text into the reader’s mind. Along with repetition, the use of imagery distinguishes the book. The specific descriptions, such as “in a house” and “with a mouse,” allow readers to create vivid images, enhancing their enjoyment of the story (Seuss 19). Additionally, the transition from an annoyed tone to one of amazement establishes

Although in the 60’s, when this song was first released, women might have had positive views about this song; because in fact women’s role 50 years ago was mainly adhering to their man’s need, whether it being supporting him, serving him or pleasing him. In which the

Thirdly, nonsense verse is characterized by word play and child-like language. In The Sitter and the Butter and the Better Batter Fritter the language is not especially child-like with the exception of the references to the babysitter as a “sitter” and the sister’s stomach as a “tum” (60-61). There is, however, much word play in this piece, particularly concerning the fritters that the babysitter made. They are called “the better batter fritter” and “the bitter butter fritter”, which conjures a distinctive image for each (61). This use of word play seems typical for Lee as he also refers to a mixer as a “butter beater” and a whisk as a “little butter cutter” (60). Other examples include references to a “sweeter batter beater” and “beaten

The verse is attributed to the Cavaliers , and is said to allude to a visit that Cromwell made to Oxford to accept their surrender during the Civil War. Except the use of ‘Nankee’ instead of ‘Yankee’ and ‘hat’ instead of ‘cap’, these lyrics are exactly those of the song we know today. And thus, they beg the question of their meanings. What or who is a Nankee Doodle? If it is Cromwell, why was he styled as such? Perhaps most perplexingly, why did he stick a feather in his hat and invoke

Lewis Carroll's use of puns and riddles in Alice in Wonderland help set the theme and tone. He uses word play in the book to show a world of warped reality and massive confusion. He uses such play on words to reveal the underlying theme of ‘growing up', but with such an unusual setting and ridiculous characters, there is need for some deep analyzing to show this theme. The book contains many examples of assonance and alliteration to add humor. Carroll also adds strange diction and extraordinary syntax to support the theme.