Belloc, H. & E. Gorey. (2002) Cautionary Tales for Children. New York, NY: Harcourt.

ISBN-10: 0151007152

ISBN-13: 978-0151007158

The stories of several children and their various levels of wrongdoing are enjoyably laid out in verse with the classic accompaniment of Gorey’s illustrations.

RHYME:

Being a book of poetry, Cautionary Tales for Children, contains quite a bit of rhyming, often in very simple schemes (a, a, b, b…) matching the innocence of tone that the illustrations create, while at the same time providing an incredibly ironic juxtaposition to the true darkness of the content.  In the book’s first poem, “Jim, who ran away from his Nurse and was eaten by a lion,” we learn about Jim, a boy who has people in his life to, “…read him Stories through and through/And even took him to the Zoo-/But there it was the dreadful Fate/Befell him, which I now relate.”  Happy-go-lucky illustrations are paired with the most basic couplet rhyme scheme and, in their towering simplicity they mask grim nature of the story, making it a… cheerful warning story about a boy consumed by a lion?  The book is filled with word and scheme usage just like this, highlighting the subtle power of poetic structure.

RHYTHM:

            Within Cautionary Tales for Children it almost impossible to separate the roles of rhyme and rhythm given how intertwined they are with each other and also with the true essence of the book itself.  The basic bouncing rhythm aids and is aided by the simple rhyme scheme, and both serve to further the ironic innocence of the book.  Where the basic rhyme scheme creates a sense of simplicity, the regular rhythm (ba-bum ba-bum) of the majority of lines in the book creates a playfulness that also hides the edginess of the content under a façade of cheerful lightheartedness.  If the true strength of the book is its ironic humor, then the core of that strength is based in the rhythm and meter of the lines as they echo familiar, safe nursery rhymes while carrying messages about little girls who accidentally burn to death because they prank called the fire fighters one too many times.

*Use in English classes (poetry/lyric fiction unit) [5^th – 7^th grade].

Media: Ink

4Q/3P

CJS 5/9/08