Metonymy and Mother Goose

Mother Goose rhymes are full of examples of this week's word, metonymy:

"Jack fell down and broke his crown"

"Jack Sprat could eat no fat. His wife could eat no lean."

Click on the link in the post title and see if you recognize other references to metonymy in this article by Bruce Lansky.

D.M.H.


Mother Goose Makeover: A Sign of the Times
Popular American children’s poet and publisher Bruce Lansky has his own take on reinventing time-honored nursery rhymes.

by Bruce Lansky

I remember the day I received a copy of The Real Mother Goose after the birth of my son in 1970. I thought, Oh, I remember reading Mother Goose when I was a boy. What a thoughtful gift! Then I looked more carefully at the cover and saw that Mother Goose was pictured as an old, spindly woman in a pointy black hat and cape, quite like a witch. What a strange cover for a book that’s read to babies and little children, I thought.