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Reading Notes: Nursery Rhymes, Part A


In the "Riddles" section of the Nursery Rhymes, there are several short riddles. At the end of each, the answer to the riddle is revealed. Many are written in "AABB" or "AABBCC" rhyme scheme.
One riddle I liked was
THIRTY white horses upon a red hill,
Now they tramp, now they champ, now they stand still.

The answer to this riddle is "teeth and gums," in which the horses are the teeth and the hill is the gums.
While I think it would be fun and interesting to write riddles like the ones found in this unit, I think it would be difficult to reach the word count required for the writing assignments for this course. To reach the required minimum word count, I would have to write several riddles, probably at least ten. These riddles tend to be shorter, usually between two and twelve lines. It would also be difficult to keep to the rhyme scheme.

Story source: The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897)

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