Now comes the rather grizzly bit
So let's not make too much of it,
Except that you must understand
That Piggy did eat Farmer Bland.
One of the characteristics of Dahl's poetry is that the narrator is always extremely conversational and almost conspiratorial with his readers. His voice is not just writing a story down on a page for one to read later; he is a presence in the poem and it is easy to imagine it being read aloud as a bedtime story or as an entertainment for a captivated young audience. Another characteristic is the way in which animals or children tend to get the better of the adult authority figures. In this case, Piggy is generally subservient to Farmer Bland because the farmer owns him, takes care of him and feeds him. Piggy turns the tables on him by eating him all up.
The poem also teaches children some important lessons about what they are eating, and about being a vegetarian, grizzly and bloodthirsty as those lessons are. On pondering the meaning of life Piggy has realized that his entire purpose is to be killed for breakfast items, which emphasize to kids that they are not merely tucking into a sausage or a slice of bacon, but that a pig has been slaughtered for the purpose of making their breakfast. Most of Dahl's poems, however revolting and seemingly fun, had some kind of cautionary tale or fable aspect to them.
On Saturdays he likes to crunch
Six juicy children for his lunch
And he especially enjoys
Just three of each, three girls, three boys.
Dahl is careful not to pick on one gender of the other in his poems. The crocodile is just as happy to eat little boys and little girls, in fact, the girls taste a little better and the boys are improved with mustard. This quote again shows the way in which his poems appeal to the sense of the benevolently gory that children all inherently seem to have. The poems are actually quite brutal in that they all involve some degree of the consumption of people. This is a serious and horrible concept, but the way in which it is written by Dahl makes it actually rather funny and joke-like.
They loll and slop and lounge about
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week, in someone's place, we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
This poem is a cautionary tale and warns kids against watching too much television by completely exaggerating what might happen if they make that mistake. Many a child has been told that watching too much television can give them square eyes. It is the same sort of cautionary observation as "if the wind changes you will stay like that", said to a child pulling a face. No, it can't possibly happen...or can it? The poet is convincing enough to perhaps inspire a child to move away from the television and pick up a book instead. Dahl was an enormous proponent of children's literature and literacy programs, and this cautionary tale is definitely an illustration of that passion.
