_Doll i' the Grass_ contains a tiny chariot made from a
silver spoon and drawn by two white mice, and _Little
Two-Eyes_ gives a magic table. The child takes keen delight
in the fairy ship which could be folded up and put into a
pocket, and in the wonderful nut-shell that could bring
forth beautiful silver and gold dresses. The little wagon of
Chanticleer and Partlet that took them a trip up to the
hill, and the tiny mugs and beds, table and plates, of Snow
White's cottage in the wood--such as these all meet the
approval of child-nature.
_Rhythm and repetition_. The child at first loves sound;
later he loves sound and sense, or meaning. Repetition
pleases him because he has limited experience and is glad to
come upon something he has known before. He observes and he
wants to compare, but it is a job. Repetition saves him a
task and boldly proclaims, "We are the same." Such is the
effect of the repetitive expressions which we find in _Teeny
Tiny_: as, "Now when the teeny-tiny woman got home to her
teeny-tiny house, she was a teeny-tiny bit tired"; or, in
_Little Jack Rollaround_, who cried out with such vigorous
persistence, "Roll me around!" and called to the moon, "I
want the people to see me!" In _The Little Rabbit Who Wanted
Red Wings_, one of the pleasantest tales for little
children, the White Rabbit said to his Mammy, "Oh, Mammy, I
wish I had a long gray tail like Bushy Tail's; I wish I had
a back full of bristles like Mr. Porcupine's; I wish I had a
pair of red rubbers like Miss Puddleduck's." At last, when
he beheld the tiny red-bird at the Wishing-Pond, he said,
"Oh, I wish I had a pair of little red wings!" Then, after
getting his wings, when he came home at night and his Mammy
no longer knew him, he repeated to Mr. Bushy Tail, Miss
Puddleduck, and old Mr. Ground Hog, the same petition to
sleep all night, "Please, kind Mr. Bushy Tail, may I sleep
in your house all night?" etc. Repetition here aids the
child in following the characters, the story, and its
meaning. It is a distinct help to unity and to clearness.
_The Elephant's Child_ is an example of how the literary
artist has used this element of repetition, and used it so
wonderfully that the form is the matter and the tale cannot
be told without the artist's words. "'Satiable curtiosity,"
"the banks of the great, grey-green, greasy, Limpopo River,
all set about with fever-trees," and "'Scuse me," are but a
few of those expressions for which the child will watch as
eagerly as one does for a signal light known to be due. The
repetition of the one word, "curtiosity," throughout the
tale, simply makes the point of the whole story and makes
that point delightfully impressive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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