[stylist] questions about original Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer poem

Tue Jan 26 00:38:30 UTC 2016

The poem is wonderful! You've definitely got yourself a future in writing.  Best wishes, Estelle

> To: stylist at nfbnet.org
> Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 12:44:46 -0600
> Subject: [stylist] questions about original Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer	poem
> From: stylist at nfbnet.org
> CC: jlastar at comcast.net
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I pasted the poem below. I'm wondering why May wrote notes in parentheses.
> Would this be his way of narrating with his thoughts? He wrote it in rhyming
> couplets. Seems like May wrote the dialogue in direct speech. Is this right?
> What affect does the last quote being in all caps make?
> 
> 'Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the hills
> 
> The reindeer were playing . . . . enjoying the spills
> 
> Of skating and coasting, and climbing the willows . . . .
> 
> And hop-scotch and leap-frog (protected by pillows!)
> 
> While every so often they'd stop to call names
> 
> At one little deer not allowed in their games:-
> 
> "Ha ha! Look at Rudolph! His nose is a sight!"
> 
> "It's red as a beet!" "Twice as big!" "Twice as bright!"
> 
> While Rudolph just wept. What else could he do?
> 
> He knew that the things they were saying were true!
> 
> Where most reindeers' noses are brownish and tiny,
> 
> Poor Rudolph's was red, very large, and quite shiny.
> 
> In daylight it dazzled. (The picture shows that!)
> 
> At night-time it glowed, like the eyes of a cat.
> 
> And putting dirt on it just made it look muddy.
> 
> (Oh boy was he mad when they nick-named him "Ruddy!")
> 
> Although he was lonesome, he always was good . . . .
> 
> Obeying his parents, as good reindeer should!
> 
> That's why, on this day, Rudolph almost felt playful:-
> 
> He hoped that from Santa (soon driving his sleighful
> 
> Of presents and candy and dollies and toys
> 
> For good little animals, good girls and boys)
> 
> He'd get just as much . . . and this is what pleased him . . .
> 
> As the happier, handsome reindeer who teased him.
> 
> So as night, and a fog, hid the world like a hood,
> 
> He went to bed hopeful; he knew he'd been good!
> 
> While way, way up North, on this same foggy night,
> 
> Old Santa was packing his sleigh for its flight.
> 
> "This fog," he complained, "will be hard to get through!"
> 
> He shook his round head. (And his tummy shook, too!)
> 
> "Without any stars or a moon as our compass,
> 
> This extra-dark night is quite likely to swamp us.
> 
> To keep from collisions, we'll have to fly slow.
> 
> To keep our direction, we'll have to fly low.
> 
> We'll steer by street-lamps and houses tonight,
> 
> In order to finish before it gets light.
> 
> Just think how the boys' and girls' faith would be shaken,
> 
> If we didn't reach 'em before they awaken!
> 
> Come Dasher! Come Dancer! Come Prancer and Vixen!
> 
> Come Comet! Come Cupid! Come Donner and Blitzen!
> 
> Be quick with your suppers! Get hitched in a hurry!
> 
> You, too, will find fog a delay and a worry!"
> 
> And Santa was right. (As he usually is!)
> 
> The fog was as thick as a soda's white fizz
> 
> Just NOT-getting-LOST needed all Santa's skill . . .
> 
> With street-signs and numbers more difficult still.
> 
> He tangled in tree-tops again and again,
> 
> And barely missed hitting a tri-motored plane.
> 
> He still made good speed, with much twisting and turning,
> 
> As long as the street lamps and house lights were burning.
> 
> At each house, first noting the people who live there,
> 
> He'd quickly select the right presents to give there.
> 
> By midnight, however, the last light had fled.
> 
> (For even big people have then gone to bed!)
> 
> Because it might wake them, a match was denied him.
> 
> (Oh my, how he wished for just one star to guide him!)
> 
> Through dark streets and houses old Santa fared poorly.
> 
> He now picked the presents more slowly, less surely.
> 
> He really was worried! For what would he do,
> 
> If folks started waking before he was through?
> 
> The air was still foggy, the night dark and drear,
> 
> When Santa arrived at the home of the deer.
> 
> A ledge that he tripped-on while seeking the chimney
> 
> Gave Santa a spill, and a painfully skinned-knee.
> 
> The room he came down in was blacker than ink,
> 
> He went for a chair, and then found it . . . a sink!
> 
> The first reindeer bedroom was so very black,
> 
> He tripped on the rug, and fell flat on his back.
> 
> So dark that he had to move close to the bed,
> 
> And squint very hard at the sleeping deer's head,
> 
> Before he could choose the right kind of a toy.
> 
> (A doll for a girl, or a train for a boy.)
> 
> But all this took time, and filled Santa with gloom,
> 
> While slowly he groped toward the next reindeer's room.
> 
> The door he'd just opened . . . when, to his surprise,
> 
> A dim but quite definite light met his eyes.
> 
> The lamp wasn't burning; the glow came, instead,
> 
> From something that lay at the head of the bed.
> 
> And there lay . . . but wait now! What would you suppose?
> 
> The glowing (you've guessed it) was RUDOLPH'S RED NOSE!
> 
> So this room was easy! This one little light
> 
> Let Santa pick quickly the gifts that were right.
> 
> How happy he was, till he went out the door . . .
> 
> The rest of the house was as black as before!
> 
> So black that it made every step a dark mystery.
> 
> And then . . . came the greatest idea in all history!
> 
> He went back to Rudolph and started to shake him
> 
> (Of course, very gently) in order to wake him.
> 
> And Rudolph could scarcely believe his own eyes!
> 
> You just can imagine his joy and surprise
> 
> At seeing who stood there, so real and so near,
> 
> While telling the tale we've already told here:-
> 
> Poor Santa's sad tale of distress and delay . . .
> 
> The fog and the darkness, and losing the way . . .
> 
> The horrible fear that some children might waken
> 
> Before his complete Christmas trip had been taken.
> 
> "And you," he told Rudolph, "may yet save the day!
> 
> Your wonderful forehead may yet pave the way
> 
> For a wonderful triumph! It actually might!"
> 
> (Old Santa, you notice, was extra-polite
> 
> To Rudolph, regarding his "wonderful forehead."
> 
> To call it a "big, shiny nose" would sound horrid!)
> 
> "I need you," said Santa, "to help me tonight . . .
> 
> To lead all my deer on the rest of our flight."
> 
> And Rudolph broke-out into such a big grin,
> 
> It almost connected his ears and his chin!
> 
> A note for his folks he dashed-off in a hurry.
> 
> "I've gone to help Santa," he wrote. "Do not worry."
> 
> Said Santa: -"My sleigh I'll bring down to the lawn.
> 
> You'd stick in the chimney." And flash . . . he was gone.
> 
> So Rudolph pranced-out through the door, hay, hay,
> 
> And took his proud place at the head of the sleigh.
> 
> The rest of the night . . . well, what would you guess?
> 
> Old Santa's idea was a brilliant success.
> 
> And "brilliant" was almost no word for the way
> 
> That Rudolph directed the deer and the sleigh.
> 
> In spite of the fog, they flew quickly, and low,
> 
> And made such good use of the wonderful glow
> 
> From Rudolph's . . . er . . . forehead, at each intersection
> 
> That not even once did they lose their direction!
> 
> While as for the houses and streets with a sign on 'em,
> 
> They merely flew close, so that Rudolph could shine on 'em.
> 
> To tell who lived where, and just what to give whom.
> 
> They'd fly by each window and peek in the room.
> 
> Old Santa knew always which children where good,
> 
> And minded their parents, and ate as they should
> 
> So Santa selected the gift that was right,
> 
> While Rudolph's . . . er . . . forehead gave just enough light.
> 
> It all went so fast, that before it was day,
> 
> The very last present was given away. . .
> 
> The very last stocking was filled to the top,
> 
> Just as the sun was preparing to pop.
> 
> This sun woke the reindeer in Rudolph's home town.
> 
> They found the short message that he'd written down . . .
> 
> Then gathered outside to await his return.
> 
> And were they excited, astonished, to learn
> 
> That Rudolph, the ugliest deer of them all,
> 
> (Rudolph the Red-nose . . . bashful and small . . .
> 
> The funny-faced fellow they always called names,
> 
> And practically never allowed in their games)
> 
> Was now to be envied by all, far and near.
> 
> For no greater honor can come to a deer
> 
> Than riding with Santa and guiding his sleigh!
> 
> The number-one job, on the number-one day!
> 
> The sleigh, and its reindeer, soon came into view.
> 
> And Rudolph still led them, as downward they flew.
> 
> Oh boy, was he proud, as they came to a landing
> 
> Right where his handsomer playmates were standing!
> 
> These bad deer who used to do nothing but tease him
> 
> Would now have done anything . . . only to please him!
> 
> They felt even sorrier they had been bad
> 
> When Santa said" -"Rudolph, I never have had
> 
> A deer quite so brave or so brilliant as you
> 
> At fighting black fog, and at guiding me through.
> 
> But your last night's journey was actually bossed.
> 
> Without you, I'm certain we'd all have been lost!
> 
> I hope you'll continue to keep us from grief,
> 
> On future dark trips, as COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF!"
> 
> But Rudolph just blushed, from his head to his toes,
> 
> Until his whole fur was as red as his nose!
> 
> The crowd first applauded, then started to screech:-
> 
> "Hurray for our Rudolph" and "We want a speech!"
> 
> But Rudolph was bashful, despite being a hero!
> 
> And tired! (His sleep on the trip totaled zero.)
> 
> So that's why his speech was just brief, and not bright:-
> 
> "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night" . . .
> 
> And that's why . . . . . . whenever it's foggy and gray,
> 
> It's Rudolph the Red-nose who guides Santa's sleigh.
> 
> Be listening, this Christmas! (But don't make a peep . . .
> 
> 'cause that late at night, children should be asleep!)
> 
> The very first sound that you'll hear on the roof
> 
> (Provided there's fog) will be Rudolph's small hoof.
> 
> And soon after that (if you're still as a mouse)
> 
> You may hear a "swish" as he flies 'round the house,
> 
> And gives enough light to give Santa a view
> 
> Of you and your room. And when they're all through,
> 
> You may hear them call, as they drive out of sight:--
> 
> "MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!"
> 
>  
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site
> http://writers.nfb.org/
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for stylist:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/samsestelleshuke%40hotmail.com