Poetry & Explanation
Mary Mapes Dodge Poems for Children
Featured PoemsPoor Crow!
Give me something to eat,
Good people, I pray;
I have really not had
One mouthful to-day!
I am hungry and cold,
And last night I dreamed
A scarecrow had caught me—
Good land, how I screamed!
Of one little children
And six ailing wives
(No, one wife and six children),
Not one of them thrives.
So pity my case,
Dear people, I pray;
I’m honest, and really
I’ve come a long way.
Plain Explanation Poor Crow: Meaning and Summary
A crow asks people for food and presents an increasingly dramatic story of hunger, cold, nightmares and a suffering family. In the third stanza, the bird becomes confused about whether it has one child and six wives or one wife and six children.
The mistake makes the crow’s appeal unreliable. Readers may still feel sympathy, but they are also invited to notice exaggeration and comic manipulation.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Begging and persuasion: The crow builds a story designed to gain food.
- Exaggeration: Each new claim makes the situation more dramatic.
- Unreliable speech: The family details shift during the telling.
- Compassion and skepticism: The poem allows pity and laughter at the same time.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is mock-pathetic and humorous. The mood begins sympathetic, then becomes comic when the crow corrects its own story.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
The crow opens with a direct request and claims complete hunger.
Stanza 2
Cold and a nightmare increase the emotional pressure.
Stanza 3
The crow confuses the number of wives and children, weakening the reliability of the appeal.
Stanza 4
The bird returns to politeness and insists on honesty, which becomes funny after the mistake.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The hungry bird, cold night and frightening scarecrow create a familiar farm setting. The crow is fully personified as a traveler, parent and persuasive speaker.
Interpretation Symbols and Their Meaning
- Scarecrow: A comic version of fear and danger for a crow.
- Long journey: A persuasive claim meant to increase sympathy.
- Mixed-up family: Evidence that the speaker may be inventing or exaggerating.
Poetic Form Poor Crow Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem contains four quatrains, generally following an ABCB pattern. “Pray/to-day” and “wives/thrives” provide clear rhymes, while conversational rhythm matters more than strict form.
The structure resembles a short sales pitch: request, emotional story, dramatic family claim and final assurance.
Craft Literary Devices in Poor Crow
- Personification: The crow speaks and invents a human family story.
- Hyperbole: Total hunger and multiple suffering relatives heighten the plea.
- Self-correction: The confused family count creates the central joke.
- Dramatic irony: Readers see the weakness in a speaker who insists on honesty.
- Direct address: “Good people” makes the audience part of the scene.
Critical Reading AP Lit-Style Central Argument
Dodge creates an unreliable animal speaker whose emotional appeal is both recognizable and ridiculous. The poem teaches young readers to hear persuasive language sympathetically without accepting every claim uncritically.
Taking Time to Grow
“Mamma! mamma!” two eaglets cried,
“To let us fly you’ve never tried.
We want to go outside and play;
We’ll promise not to go away.”
The mother wisely shook her head:
“No, no, my dears. Not yet,” she said.
“But, mother dear,” they called again,
“We want to see those things called men,
And all the world so grand and gay,
Papa described the other day.
And—don’t you know?—he told you then
About a little tiny wren,
That flew about so brave and bold,
When it was scarcely four weeks old?”
But still the mother shook her head;
“No, no, my dears, not yet,” she said.
“Before you see the world below,
Far bigger you will have to grow.
There’s time enough to look for men;
And as for wrens—a wren’s a wren.
What if your freedom does come late?
An eaglet can afford to wait.”
Plain Explanation Taking Time to Grow: Meaning and Summary
Two young eagles want to leave the nest and explore the world. They promise not to go far and compare themselves with a tiny wren that flew at only four weeks old. Their mother refuses because eaglets need more time to become strong enough for the kind of flight expected of eagles.
The poem’s lesson is that development should not be measured by another creature’s schedule. Waiting is not failure when greater strength and responsibility are being prepared.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Patience: Readiness matters more than speed.
- Individual development: A wren and an eagle should not be judged by the same timetable.
- Parental wisdom: The mother protects without dismissing the eaglets’ curiosity.
- Freedom and responsibility: Larger freedom requires larger growth.
- Comparison: Another person’s progress is not a reliable measure of one’s own.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is affectionate, patient and gently humorous. The eaglets sound eager rather than badly behaved.
The mood is reassuring. The delay has a purpose and the mother never suggests that flight will be denied forever.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
The eaglets ask for freedom and make a promise meant to reduce their mother’s concern. Her brief refusal establishes the conflict between desire and readiness.
Stanza 2
The eaglets describe the exciting human world and use the wren as evidence. Their argument depends on comparison with a smaller species.
Stanza 3
The mother explains that size and identity matter. An eagle’s delayed freedom is acceptable because an eagle is preparing for a different kind of life and flight.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
Nest, world below, eaglets and tiny wren create a vertical image of sheltered height and desired descent into experience.
The birds are personified as children arguing with a parent. Their dialogue makes the developmental lesson emotionally familiar.
Interpretation Symbols and Their Meaning
- Nest: Protection and the stage before independence.
- Flight: Freedom, ability and mature action.
- Wren: A misleading comparison with someone whose development follows another pattern.
- Eagle: Large potential requiring preparation.
- World below: Experience the young desire before they are ready.
Poetic Form Taking Time to Grow Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem has three verse paragraphs of unequal length, built mostly from rhyming couplets. Dialogue dominates the structure: request, supporting argument and parental explanation.
The repeated sentence “No, no, my dears. Not yet” acts as a refrain. Its meaning changes from simple refusal to reasoned patience.
Craft Literary Devices in Taking Time to Grow
- Personification: Eagles speak like a family.
- Dialogue: The lesson develops through argument rather than narration alone.
- Refrain: “Not yet” marks the central idea of delayed readiness.
- Symbolism: Flight represents independence and mature power.
- Contrast: The tiny wren is placed against the larger eagle.
- Aphorism: “An eaglet can afford to wait” summarizes the poem’s message.
Critical Reading AP Lit-Style Central Argument
Dodge challenges the belief that earlier always means better. By contrasting wren and eagle, the poem argues that patience should be measured against the scale of one’s potential, not the speed of another creature’s development.
Resolution
If you’ve any task to do,
Let me whisper, friend, to you,
Do it.
If you’ve any thing to say,
True and needed, yea or nay,
Say it.
If you’ve any thing to love,
As a blessing from above,
Love it.
If you’ve any thing to give,
That another’s joy may live,
Give it.
If some hollow creed you doubt,
Though the whole world hoot and shout,
Doubt it.
If you know what torch to light,
Guiding others through the night,
Light it.
If you’ve any debt to pay,
Rest you neither night nor day—
Pay it.
If you’ve any joy to hold,
Next your heart, lest it grow cold,
Hold it.
If you’ve any grief to meet,
At the loving Father’s feet,
Meet it.
If you’re given light to see
What a child of God should be,
See it.
Whether life be bright or drear,
There’s a message, sweet and clear,
Whispered down to every ear—
Hear it!
Plain Explanation Resolution: Meaning and Summary
The poem gives a sequence of direct instructions: do necessary work, speak truth, love blessings, give generously, question hollow belief, guide others, pay debts, hold joy, face grief and recognize moral light.
Each section reduces reflection to an active verb. The title therefore means more than making a New Year promise; it means resolving uncertainty through responsible action.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Action: Good intentions matter only when completed.
- Truthful speech: Necessary truth should be said.
- Independent thought: A hollow creed may be questioned even under social pressure.
- Generosity and guidance: Personal gifts should improve another person’s life.
- Emotional courage: Joy should be protected and grief honestly met.
- Spiritual attention: The final instruction is to hear the message offered through life.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is firm, intimate and encouraging. “Let me whisper, friend” makes the commands feel personal rather than authoritarian.
The mood is purposeful. Short final verbs produce clarity and momentum.
Close Reading Movement Through the Poem
Work and Speech
The opening sections focus on completing tasks and saying what is true and necessary.
Love and Giving
The next commands turn inward affection into outward generosity.
Doubt and Guidance
The poem supports honest questioning while also asking readers to light a torch for others.
Duty and Emotion
Debt, joy and grief are all treated as realities that should be faced directly.
Vision and Hearing
The ending shifts from physical action to spiritual perception: see what goodness requires and hear life’s clear message.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The main image is a torch guiding others through darkness. Joy is held close to prevent coldness, while grief is carried to the Father’s feet.
The final message is personified as a whisper reaching every ear, making moral understanding feel near and continuous.
Interpretation Symbols and Their Meaning
- Torch: Knowledge or courage shared with others.
- Night: Confusion, fear or lack of guidance.
- Debt: Any obligation that should not be postponed.
- Cold joy: Happiness neglected until it loses emotional force.
- Father’s feet: A place of prayer, acceptance and spiritual support.
- Whispered message: Moral insight available to attentive people.
Poetic Form Resolution Rhyme Scheme and Structure
Most sections contain two rhyming setup lines followed by a short imperative: “do it,” “say it,” “love it” and similar commands. The final section expands to four setup lines before “Hear it!”
Anaphora—repeated “If you’ve” or “If”—creates a sequence of conditions and responses. The isolated verbs provide strong visual and rhythmic emphasis.
Craft Literary Devices in Resolution
- Anaphora: Repeated conditional openings organize the poem.
- Imperatives: Short commands turn ideas into action.
- Parallelism: Similar grammatical units make the advice memorable.
- Symbolism: Torch, night, coldness and light carry moral meanings.
- Contrast: Bright and drear conditions are both included.
- Direct address: “Friend” creates personal connection.
Critical Reading AP Lit-Style Central Argument
Dodge structures moral life as a series of completed verbs. The poem values discernment—especially the courage to doubt hollow belief—but repeatedly insists that insight must become speech, service, payment, endurance or guidance.
Reader Guide
Questions About Mary Mapes Dodge Poems
Who was Mary Mapes Dodge?
Mary Mapes Dodge was an American author and editor born in 1830. She wrote Hans Brinker; or, The Silver Skates, edited the children’s magazine St. Nicholas and published poetry for young readers.
What kind of poems did Mary Mapes Dodge write?
She wrote nonsense verse, nature poems, alphabet and learning poems, animal poems, holiday verse and short moral poems. Many use rhyme, dialogue and comic reversal.
What is The Mayor of Scuttleton about?
It is a nonsense poem about an unpredictable mayor who performs impossible actions. The humor comes from reversed logic and strange combinations of ordinary objects.
What is the fire in Fire in the Window?
The apparent fire is sunset reflected in a window and on a weather-vane. The poem briefly treats the light as an emergency before revealing its natural source.
What do the little white feathers symbolize in Snow?
They are a metaphor for snowflakes. The poem imagines them as feathers shaken from birds flying inside the clouds.
Who is Goggleky Gluck?
Goggleky Gluck is the frog in “The Moon Came Late to a Lonesome Bog.” The unusual name adds sound-based humor to the four-line poem.
Why is the New Year described as a trust?
In “In Trust,” the year is a temporary gift lent by God. The reader is expected to use that time for effort, generosity and growth.
What is the main message of Shepherd John?
The poem respects shepherding while encouraging education. Shepherd John wants his son to read so that he may enter “grander fields” of work and knowledge.
What does Birdies with broken wings mean?
The line represents pain and vulnerability. Unlike injured birds that hide, children can seek help and comfort at home.
What is the joke in Early to Bed and Early to Rise?
The speaker interprets the proverb literally. He offers to rise early but plans to return to bed immediately, gaining the supposed reward without doing the intended work.
Is the crow in Poor Crow reliable?
Not completely. The crow confuses the number of wives and children in its own story, which suggests exaggeration or invention.
What does an eaglet can afford to wait mean?
The line means that a creature with great potential does not need to rush development. An eagle may take longer than a small bird because it is preparing for a different kind of strength and flight.
What is the theme of Resolution?
Its main theme is purposeful action. Work, truth, love, generosity, doubt, duty, joy and grief should all be faced directly rather than postponed.
What literary devices does Mary Mapes Dodge use?
Common devices include personification, rhyme, repetition, dialogue, nonsense, hyperbole, animal analogy, metaphor, parody and final-line comic reversal.
Are Mary Mapes Dodge poems in the public domain?
The 1875 collection used here is in the public domain in the United States. Project Gutenberg identifies its edition as public domain in the USA. Copyright rules may differ in other countries.
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