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Old Mother Hubbard
Literary Elements - Devices of Style
Key
elements of the rhyme
The
key literary elements in nursery rhymes are often characters and setting.
(Lukens, 1986, p. 187) Both of these elements hold to be true as the key
elements in ?Old Mother Hubbard' as well. The characters of Old Mother
Hubbard and the dog are central to the rhyme, as well as the setting contributing
to the time in which is was written. Many of the words and terms used
in the rhyme are characteristic of 19th century dialect, as is the condition
of Old Mother Hubbard's character.
Devices of style
The
main devices of style used in ?Old Mother Hubbard' are: personification
(ie: dog was laughing, dancing a jig, reading the news, etc); rhyme (ie:
Hubbard with cupboard, bread with dead, fish with dish, coat with goat
? just about every other line rhymes); consonance (ie: hubbard and cupboard);
assonance (ie: bone and none, beer and chair, fruit and flute, hose and
clothes); the constant use of the ?ing' ending (ie: smoking, licking,
feeding, dancing, riding, spinning); and the repetition of the phrase
?But when she came back,' which is used in every stanza except the first
and last one.
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