page_title: Little Orphant Annie
hierarchical_section_title: Little Orphant Annie
caption_attribution_description: English: C. 1863 photograph of Mary Alice "Allie" Smith at the Greenfield Indiana home of James Whitcomb Riley. Smith is the inspiration for the character "Little Orphant Annie", described in Whitcomb's 1885 poem of the same name.
context_page_description: "Little Orphant Annie" is an 1885 poem written by James Whitcomb Riley and published by the Bowen-Merrill Company. First titled "The Elf Child", the name was changed by Riley to "Little Orphant Allie" at its third printing; however, a typesetting error during printing renamed the poem to its current form. Known as the "Hoosier poet", Riley wrote the rhymes in nineteenth-century Hoosier dialect. As one of his most well known poems, it served as the inspiration for the character Little Orphan Annie upon whom was based a comic strip, plays, radio programs, television shows, and movies.
  The subject was inspired by Mary Alice "Allie" Smith, an orphan living in the Riley home during her childhood. The poem contains four stanzas; the first introduces Annie and the second and third are stories she is telling to young children. Each story tells of a bad child who is snatched away by goblins as a result of his or her misbehavior. The underlying moral and warning is announced in the final stanza, telling children that they should obey their parents and be kind to the unfortunate, lest they suffer the same fate.
context_section_description: "Little Orphant Annie" is an 1885 poem written by James Whitcomb Riley and published by the Bowen-Merrill Company. First titled "The Elf Child", the name was changed by Riley to "Little Orphant Allie" at its third printing; however, a typesetting error during printing renamed the poem to its current form. Known as the "Hoosier poet", Riley wrote the rhymes in nineteenth-century Hoosier dialect. As one of his most well known poems, it served as the inspiration for the character Little Orphan Annie upon whom was based a comic strip, plays, radio programs, television shows, and movies.
  The subject was inspired by Mary Alice "Allie" Smith, an orphan living in the Riley home during her childhood. The poem contains four stanzas; the first introduces Annie and the second and third are stories she is telling to young children. Each story tells of a bad child who is snatched away by goblins as a result of his or her misbehavior. The underlying moral and warning is announced in the final stanza, telling children that they should obey their parents and be kind to the unfortunate, lest they suffer the same fate.
caption: Mary Alice "Allie" Smith, Riley's inspiration for the poem
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