This short poem is about having the chicken pox. It includes rhyme, alliteration and a spoonerism.
“Chicken Pox”
By Kia West
I have a case of picken chox
There’s spots upon my tongue
There are dots all up my belly
There are blisters on my bum
I’m so crazy itchy
I need to scritch and scratch
And if I sat on top an egg
I’m so hot that it would hatch!
It all started with a spot
And now, I’m totally covered
I don’t think that I’ll survive
Ten days ’til I’m recovered
But if I find the silver
Lining my misery
I can’t go to school again
Until I’m all spot free!
Poetic Devices:
Rhyme
Alliteration
Spoonerism
More about this Chicken Pox poem…
This poem has four verses with four lines each. It has a consistent rhyme scheme that can be described as ABCB, which means that the last words in line two and line four rhyme in each verse.
The poem starts off with a spoonerism. The beginning sounds in the words “chicken pox” have been swapped. In the next line, the narrator is saying they have chicken pox on their tongue; the intended effect of these two lines together is for the reader to imagine a child sticking out their tongue as they say the first line.
The poem also contains the poetic device alliteration. This is when consonant sounds are repeated at the beginning of words. An example of this is the repetition of the ‘b’ sound in verse one, line four: “There are blisters on my bum”.
It could also be argued that verse four contains hyperbole. This is a fancy word for exaggeration used for emphasis. The narrator is being hyperbolic when they say, “I don’t think that I’ll survive”.
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