Parody
One of the substantive themes unifying most of the poems in this collection is parody. Dahl relies upon existing familiarity with such subjects as “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and Ali Bab and nursery rhymes such as “I had a Little Nut Tree” and that contrary girl named Mary and gives them a modern spin. The spin usually updates the tale to the modern age as a way of making social commentary about social mores, economics, lifestyle progression, or ethics and values.
Sexuality
Roald Dahl wrote several a novel best described as a sex romp and some of his short stories for adults deal with situations of a sexual nature, but for the most part his children’s books shy away from the topic. This is assuredly not so in Rhyme Stew. In fact, the book’s cover even includes art warning that it is not suitable for young kids. Examples include an illustration showing the bare backside of the title figure in “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The subject of “Physical Training” a gym teacher taking will advantage of one of her male students. The male who is exposed to an adult female exhibitionist is even younger in “Hot and Cold.”
Schemers and Manipulators
A number of these poems depend upon schemers and attempts at manipulation to get the their point across. This theme is effectively summed up in a line from book’s opening poem, “Dick Whittington and His Cat.” This long narrative is about an attempt to fool a naïve young man into believing he has been proclaimed Lord Mayor of London by a trickster vicar. The young man eventually learns “In London no one tells the truth.” That can be applied widely across the breadth of this book as both the tortoise and the hare fall victim to a conniving rat. Meanwhile Aladdin is transformed into a gullible but ultimately luck kid tricked into retrieving the magic lamp by a wicked Chinese man calling himself Jack MacFaddin! Even the much shorter poems reveal incidents of scheming: a middle-aged woman is groped by a vicar in “A Hand in the Bird” while an overprotective mother in “The Price of Debauchery” tries to manipulate her daughter’s natural curiosity by warning that merely kissing a boy can result in a foul disease.
