The Great American Chocolate Poem

What a Scrumpdiddlyumptious Wednesday!  On this day in 1894, Milton S. Hershey founded the Hershey Chocolate Company, now the largest chocolate manufacturer in the United States. If you've ever found yourself dreaming of chocolate waterfalls, chocolate rivers, and Willie Wonka's famous chocolate factory, today is your day.  Our first two poems, from Chocolate Dreams by Arnold Adoff,  use repetition of the word chocolate and hyperbole, a figure of speech that stretches the truth or exaggerates, to make a point: the speaker really really REALLY likes chocolate:

Chocolate Dreams. Two. 

Chocolate Sun.

Chocolate Moon.

Chocolate Clouds.

Chocolate Raindrops.

Chocolate Sprinkles  On

                                   My

Chocolate Head.

Chocolate Hair.

Chocolate Face.

Chocolate Body.

Chocolate Bed.

Chocolate Squishing  In

                                   My

Chocolate Boots  As I

                                 Run

                          Through 

Chocolate Streets     And

                             Splash

                          Through

Chocolate Puddles  And

                              Wade

                            Across

Chocolate Streams. I

                                Must

                                Swim

                                Swift

Chocolate Rivers.  I

                              Must

                              Swim

                              Some

                Unsweetened

Chocolate Sea.        I

                    Dream A

Chocolate World      For 

                                  Me

Chocolate World      For

                                  Me.

Chocolate Dreams. Five.

Lock Yourself In The Kitchen

On a Raining Afternoon With

All The Ingredients For Making

Chocolate Chip Cookies.  First:

Open the Bag Of Chocolate 

                             Chips

And

Proceed To Eat

Every One Of Them.

                        Then

Mix And Bake The

Remaining

Ingredients  Per  Instructions.

After  They Cool

                                                                     You May Serve Chocolate Chipless

                                                                                                Chocolate Chip

                                                                                                                  Cookies.

Today's final poem, Sliver of Liver by Lois Simmie, uses hyperbole to convince us that the speaker really really REALLY doesn't like liver: 

Just a sliver of liver they want me to eat,

It's good for my blood, they all say;

They want me to eat just the tiniest sliver

Of yukky old slimy old slithery liver;

I'm say no thanks, not today.

No, I'll pass for tonight but tomorrow I might

Simply beg for a sliver of liver.

"Give me liver!" I'll cry.  "I'll have liver or die!

Oh, please cook me a sliver of liver!"

One piece might not do, I'll need two or a few,

I'll want tons of the wobbly stuff,

Of that quivery shivery livery pile

There may not be nearly enough.

 Just a sliver, you say?  No thanks, not today.

Tomorrow, I really can't say;

But today I would sooner eat slivers of glass,

Eat the tail of a skunk washed down with gas,

Eat slivers of sidewalks and slivers of swings,

Slivers and slivers of any old thing,

Than a sliver of slimy old quivery shivery

Livery liver today.

The LMC has several nonfiction books describing the chocolate-making process.  You'll also find plenty of chocolate-themed fiction: Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith, The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.  

Liver?  Not so much....