We are reading
Alice in Wonderland these days, a story I know but have actually never read. And in it we are finding a variety of verse, beginning with:
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcome little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!
Of course, being a child of the end of the 20th century and my children firmly ensconced in the 21st, I could not comprehend the parody of the crocodile poem until Mama told us the original:
Against Idleness And Mischief
Isaac Watts
How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!
How skillfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.
In works of labour or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.
In books, or work, or healthy play,
Let my first years be passed
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.
For more of Lewis Carroll's verses in
Alice contrasted with their original bases, visit
here.
