by: Sarah O'Connor

   Dennis Lee was born on August 31, 1939 in Toronto, Ontario.  He was the second child to a family of four children.  Dennis is best known for his children's poetry books.  The genre of his poetry is usually very comical and his poems are written for children.  He also has a few poems written for adults, but most major in children's poetry.

    Dennis Lee began writing in 1960 when he was twenty-one.  He went to Kingsway Lambton Public school and the University of Toronto Secondary school.  Dennis Lee married Susan Perly in 1985 and he has 3 grown children from a previous marriage and 1 grandson.  Dennis writes mostly poetry now a days, but back in the 1980's he did script work on 2 Jim Henson films called "The Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth".  Plus he wrote the song lyrics to the popular children's show "Fraggle Rock" in 1982.
 

    Dennis Lee hasn't written any poems recently but a couple of titles of poems that were written a few years ago are "Dinosaur Dinner with a Slice of Alligator Pie" in 1997 and "The Ice Cream Store" in 1991.  The titles of some of Dennis Lee's best poems are "Lizzy's Lion",  "Alligator Pie", "Wiggle to the Laundromat" and "Jelly Belly".  Dennis has received many awards for his poetry including the Governor General's Award in 1972 for his political collection called ''Civil Elegies and the Other Poems'' and an award for his poem "Alligator Pie".
    What stands out most about Dennis Lee's poetry is he writes it so it is appropriate for children and very funny.  He writes his poems so they are easy to read and understand.  Dennis uses figurative language and imagery very effectively in his poetry.  He also has a effective language in his poems that children can read and understand what his poems are saying.  The topics that Dennis Lee uses in his poetry are very interesting and some times very funny.
 
Alligator Pie

Alligator pie, alligator pie, 
If I don't get some I think I'm going to die.
Give away the green grass, give away the sky,
But don't give away my alligator pie.

Alligator stew, alligator stew,
If I don't get some I don't know what I'll do.
Give away my furry hat, give away my shoe,
But don't give away my alligator stew.

Alligator soup, alligator soup,
If I don't get some I think I'm going to droop.
Give away my hockey stick, give away my hoop,
But don't give away my alligator soup.
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Why I like this poem is because I find it very funny and the imagery and the figurative language is written very well.  The language Dennis Lee uses in this poem is very good and I feel it is appropriate for children and is written in words they can understand.  He uses a lot of rhyming words in this poem like pie and sky, droop and hoop, and stew and shoe.  The topic he uses is this poem is very funny and I like it because you would not usually eat alligators but the kid in this poem does and they don't want it taken away, so they offer other things to some other person so that the other person wouldn't take away the kid's alligator pie.  I chose this poem over his other poems because I heard about this poem from my cousin and it sounded interesting so I read it and I liked it and found it good for children to read so that is why I chose it.

Resources

www.google.com/dennislee