| ay republish this article, but must keep the resource | | | | favourites. |
| box and copyright at the end. | | | | There are rhymes which are progressive, adding one |
| ( 452 words) | | | | layer on another. In ‘The House that Jack |
| Do you remember any of the nursery rhymes you | | | | Built’ it is necessary to remember the |
| heard when you were little? I know I do, and | | | | preceding lines as one progresses through the verses. |
| recently I have been looking again at some of them | | | | This rhyme has a particularly interesting rhythm and |
| and discovering a few reasons why they stay so | | | | cast of characters. |
| long in my memory. Partly, I expect, it is because our | | | | There are rhymes too built around specific |
| minds, as children, are so receptive, and like sponges, | | | | characters, ‘Little Miss Muffet’, |
| absorb ideas and impressions so well. But the rhymes | | | | ‘Little Boy Blue’, ‘Jack |
| themselves when looked at again in later years, have | | | | Sprat’ and ‘Little Jack Horner’, |
| a lot to offer, such as: | | | | where the giving of names fixes the verse more |
| * Vivid imagery and imagination | | | | firmly in the mind. |
| * Rhymes to aid memory | | | | For a compact, economical rhyme it is hard to beat |
| * Rhythm | | | | ‘Solomon Grundy’, whose entire |
| * Memorable characters | | | | lifetime is summed up in a few lines. This is in |
| * Story telling | | | | contrast to ‘There was a Crooked |
| All these elements combine, in some nursery rhymes | | | | Man’ where the effect of the rhyme |
| to produce very interesting poetry. The words may | | | | depends on the constant repetition of the word |
| be simple, but the overall effect can give pleasure, | | | | ‘crooked’. |
| touch the emotions, or even in some rhymes | | | | I feel that nursery rhymes have an important part to |
| produce an atmosphere of tension or threat. Here I | | | | play in opening and preparing young minds to |
| am thinking in particular of two which affected me | | | | appreciate more complicated poetry as adults. Quite |
| deeply as a child and which I still find quite disturbing. | | | | apart from this virtue, they give a great deal of |
| ‘Oranges and Lemons’ in its final lines | | | | pleasure. Certainly, I found revisiting them a lot of |
| about the candle to light you to bed, and the | | | | fun. |
| chopper to chop off your head refers to the | | | | I hope that they will continue to flourish and that |
| unhappy fate of felons in London’s gaols | | | | they will never go out of fashion. |
| many years ago. The other rhyme , ‘A man | | | | Evangeline Auld |
| of words and not of deeds’ builds to a rather | | | | Copyright (c) Mizzmouse. All rights reserved. |
| gruesome climax, but somehow it is one of my | | | | |
