Two-legged, Four-legged, No-legged Rhymes

Title:  Two-legged, Four-legged, No-legged Rhymes

Author: J. Patrick Lewis

Illustrator: Pamela Paparone

Publisher:  Alfred A. Knopf

Genre: Poetry

Level: Intermediate

Number of Pages: 30

Pub. Date: 1991

Summary:  A collection of humorous poems about animals and a few people. Many of them are animals that talk, dance, take care of people and more. There are such animals as the Padiddle, the Hippopot, the copycat and the porcu-pain. There is an illustration that goes along with each poem.

Critique: The author uses lots of rhyme in the poems in this collection. A great example is from a poem called “Farmer, Farmer” on page 28:

“Farmer Howe milked the cow,

Missed the bucket,

Hit the plow.

Farmer Mull milked the bull…

Wave good-bye

To Farmer Mull.”  

Another poetic element that is uses a lot in this book is rhythm, where the verses don’t always necessarily rhyme, but they have a great flow about them. Another example from the book showcases the use of rhythm. This one is called Bartholo and it’s located on page 22. It starts like this:

“ I love to see

Bartholo jump

And pull the shoestrings

From a shoe.

I love to feel

Bartholo rub

His whiskers next

To me. Do you?”

Response: The poem that made me laugh the most in this collection was the on pages 18 and 19. It’s called Mosquito and it’s about a little boy who scolds the mosquito for biting him on the butt, then the bug says that he’s sorry and he won’t do it again. Then he goes and bites three more children on their butts! It ends saying, “A mosquito’s awful sneaky, A mosquito is mighty sly, But I never never never thought a skeeter’d tell a lie!” I just found this poem really funny because I’m like a mosquito magnet when it comes to being bit, so I can totally relate and can definitely see a mosquito telling a lie!