"THERE
was a fat man of Bombay,
Who was smoking one sunshiny day,"
Who was smoking one sunshiny day,"
 |
| Fat man of Bombay, wikipedia |
On a sunny day in the
city of Bombay a man sat reading his favorite book and enjoying the green
grass, running water, and birds chirping. His favorite spot underneath the big
willow tree provided just enough shade for him to relax and enjoy the day with
a smoke from his pipe. The man was rather large and his plump belly hung over
the waistband of his stained green pants. He brought his favorite pipe his
father had given him to smoke. His perfectly round belly made the perfect rest
for his pipe as he began to close his eyes and drift into his dreams.
"When
a bird, called a snipe,
Flew away with his pipe,"
Flew away with his pipe,"
 | ||
| Snipe Bird, Natural History Wikipedia |
As his eyes were
fluttering closed a bird with a very long slender bill started eyeing the man
by the tree. The bird was brown with speckled feathers. Not an extraordinary
bird in any way. The bird was a snipe and rather small, but little did the fat
man of Bombay know, the small bird was going to make a big change in his day. The
bird circled in the sky as the fat man began to drift and snatched the pipe
right off of the fat man’s belly. He flew off with the pipe in his bill. The
fat man could have sworn as the bird flew away there was a small evil grin
spread across the snipe’s face.
" Which vexed the fat man of Bombay."
As the man struggled
to reach down and grab pebbles from the ground, the bird began to fly away out of
sight. With as much force as he could the fat man began throwing pebbles at the
bird and cursing at the bird who stole his most prized procession. When all
hope was lost in getting the pipe back, the man waddled home in a gloomy and
angry mood. The cursing continued under his breath all the way back to his
house. He could not get over the idea
that this small little bird took his pipe right from his own belly. The fat man
of Bombay had lost his favorite item that day.
Authors Note: The idea for this story came from the tale out of the The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang. The original rhyme reads "THERE was a fat man of Bombay, Who was smoking one sunshiny day, When a bird, called a snipe, Flew away with his pipe, Which vexed the fat man of Bombay." The original rhyme was utilized in the story as the larger bolded sections. The story was elaborated on by describing the bird and the pipe and how angry the man was. Rather than changing the plot of the rhyme, I simply went into greater descriptive detail about the appearance and setting of the scene.
Bibliography:
Book: The Nursery Rhyme Book
Title: The Nursery Rhyme BookAuthor: Unknown
Editor: Andrew Lang
Date: 1897 (ebook 2008)
Web Source: Gutenberg Project Files
Emily-
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your retelling of "The Fat Man of Bombay." While the original did rhyme and was cute, I enjoyed your version more. The detail that you went into made it a much richer story. I have to say, I ended up on the side of the snipe, flying away with his pipe. The evil little grin on the bird's face just put it over the top for me. Excellent retelling!
-Michele
Great story! I enjoyed the detail and greater description that you gave. I felt like I could see him exactly as you pictured and could recreate the scene in my mind. I love stories with a lot of detail so I enjoyed reading your version. I love retelling a nursery rhyme can bring all different types of interpretations. Everyone can get something different from the story and make the characters change just by their descriptions. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great story and you did a fantastic job of writing it. The imagery was truly something special. With all the detail and description I felt as though I could really see the scene in my head. I also enjoyed how you included the original text in your story along with the images, it was interesting to see the original rhyme and your detailed story side by side.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this story Emily! The original was very rhymey and short, but getting to have a background of descriptive details and eloquent language that you provided was much more interesting to read. I liked how you wove in the original story with the new story that you created. It was a very interesting read and I really enjoyed it!
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