Textual explication

Here is the document I mentioned last week, published for the first time ever, at your very own Crawdad Hole:

Textual explication of "The Lion" by Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl's "The Lion" is a short lyric poem in iambic pentameter couplets. The length of the poem, four lines longer than a sonnet, expresses Dahl's theme of overturning tradition, subverting the conventional, and escaping quotidian norms.

The poem is addressed to the reader, an unconventional device in adult literature but a perfectly acceptable one to the child reader. This is heavily ironic, since the child to whom the reader expects the poem to speak will be the type of reader most likely to be deeply disturbed by the grim and crushing end.

To overturn or subvert tradition, a writer must first establish the tradition which he or she expects to undermine, and this is glibly done in the modest, unthreatening first couplet. In fact, the conciseness and precision of expression are perfectly worthy of the 17th century's notion of wit. The idea expressed is not new, and is put simply in keeping with its import.

Repetition of the word "tender" in lines 2 and 4 is the first subversive element of the text, hardly noticeable upon a first reading yet influencing the entire mood of the poem. The reader is put in a vulnerable, innocent state of mind, aided as well by the conventional and unassuming couplet noted above.

Lines 5-9 amass culinary references, evoking [change of writer]what are most likely pleasant dining experiences in the mind of the impressionable young child, and setting up the reader to expect a pleasant ending, most likely ending with lion and speaker joining one another in pleasant repast. The fact that the lion refuses the first four scrumptious suggestions is no major impediment; four more suggestions await in lines 11-15. [change of writer] In these lines, though, the character of the inquiry changes. Less food items are proposed in a line, and eliciting information from the lion about its favorite meal becomes more difficult. Also at this point, the speaker is becoming nervous; there are the first direct hints of the shattering ending. Flattery like "lion dear," "lovely steak," and "entice" conjure a mental image of the speaker, in belated recognition, backing away from the lion.

[change of writer] The ominous change from present to past tense in line 15 comes as a bitter shock to the innocent reader. The backing away came too late; the trap is set. Line 14 is the last we hear from the child; it is significant that "rabbit" and "hare," two small, quiet, gentle animals, are offered as the lion's choice of cuisine: Dahl obviously associates the child with the rabbit.

In the final lines, the lion speaks, and we find that we have been subtly prepared for his pronouncement by the depth of imagery which has gone before. Tragic, yet, as all true tragedy, inevitable.