INTRODUCTION
The Crocodile
Lewis Carroll - 1832-1898
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 spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!
'The Crocodile' by Lewis Carroll tells very briefly, about a crocodile who stealthily attracts a fish and then swallows it with a big smile on his face. As a reader, I feel this poem can take me through some of the attributes that certain crocodiles display. Fraud and cunning are among them. He smiled cheerfully, basked in the sun, washed his scales, and opened his paws as if welcoming a fish into his arms.
‘The Crocodile’ by Lewis Carroll is a two stanza poem that is separated into sets of four lines, known as quatrains. These quatrains follow a simple rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD. The lines are also all around the same length, with alternating margins, lining up with their alternating rhyme scheme.
Connotation and denotation