How Doth the Little Crocodile (Carrington)

"How Doth the Little Crocodile" is a poem by Leonora Carrington, included in her surrealist novel The Hearing Trumpet (1974). It's a darkly humorous and distorted reimagining of Lewis Carroll's poem "How Doth the Little Busy Bee" from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).

Carrington's version maintains the meter and rhyme scheme of the original Carroll poem but replaces the innocent moralizing with unsettling and absurdist imagery. The crocodile is presented as a manipulative and monstrous figure, rather than a diligent worker, using its charming smile to lure in unsuspecting victims. The poem underscores the themes of deception and the subversion of traditional morality prevalent in Carrington's wider body of work. The crocodile’s actions, though sinister, are described with a detached, almost clinical, observation, amplifying the poem’s unsettling effect. Its inclusion within The Hearing Trumpet serves to further destabilize the reader's expectations and contribute to the novel's overall atmosphere of dreamlike unease and satirical critique of societal norms.