The Nursery Rhyme In The Great Plague Of England

Nursery rhymes are known as playful, short, nonsense rhymes created for the pure amusement of children. With the use of rhythmic words such as "humpty" and "dumpty" or exaggerated references such as the old woman who lives in a shoe, children find these nursery rhymes silly and easy to memorize and chant. However, some nursery rhymes also encase meaningful lessons for little ones, as well as hidden references to historic figures or events such as the "Ring Around the Rosie" referring to The Great Plague of London." It is through the analysis of language patterns and content that the reader can uncover the underlying message in the nursery rhyme and exploit intentional techniques that the author used to craft the nursery rhyme . Therefore, by
However, if we assume that it is the pig's owner who beats Tom, then the rhyme is teaching children of greed since the pig's owner knowingly beat a starving child. Thus the content of the nursery rhyme conveys a valuable moral lesson either way it is interpreted. The sound of the rhyme itself employs a very strong and sharp feeling through its use of assonance. First, as the rhyme is read out loud, it is evident that there is a sense of "teeter-tottering" through the back and forth movement of vowel sounds in the middle of the words. For example, in the first line there is a sense of balance as the sound of the "o" is placed both in the beginning and the end of the sentence with the words "Tom" and "son." However, in the next sentence the balance is broken as Tom's misbehavior is exposed and the vowel sounds change to opposite sounds with "pig" and "run." The teeter-tottering sound is even more prominent in the 4th and last lines with the words "Tom" and "beat" and "down" and "street." Although the swaying of the vowel sounds creates a feeling of guidance throughout the rhyme through the playful lines, it also creates the feeling of unbalance during the
As the Queen of Hearts, it is obvious that I had enough pigs to feed a hundred Toms, yet I was so greedy that I had Tom beat out of pure amusement. I used a lot of body language to convey an essence of superiority and a nonchalance demeanor towards someone's desperation for food. When I stated that I had Tom beat, I smiled and proudly pointed to myself with a small chuckle. Additionally, when I stated that "Tom went crying down the street," I wiggled my fingers in a motion that illustrated Tom running in a manner that suggested it was no big deal to me. In other words, I belittled his running down the street in pain, as simply Tom running along like an adult would tell a child to run along. My oral presentation helped my audience sympathize with Tom and feel a remorse towards me, the queen who had Tom beat. I did this intentionally in hopes of emphasizing the desperation of Tom and the selfishness of the person who punished him to teach my audience that greed is wrong. After analyzing the content and other language elements of the nursery rhyme "Tom, Tom the Piper's Son," it is evident that the rhyme entails a message of struggle and greed. It exploits both the world of the