Louisa May Alcott’s words are elementary in their familiar nature and ease of expression, giving her poem a nursery-rhyme like quality. Alcott’s lady-like prose is both charming and playful in a civilized manner. Honest and open enough to appeal to children, “To the One Who Teaches Me” is an ode to those who, with great patience guide and shape the growing generations. Presented in a straight-forward format that appeals to the unbiased mindset of youth, this poem acts as a lesson all the while honoring those who work for it’s instruction. This, however is only one possible translation of this poem, it is equally likely that this poem was intended as a impudent prod at all those who attempt to confine women( or people in general) to a pre-determined role. “To one who teaches me,” this is intended not for a guide, as you might say but a lecturer one who believes they know what's best for everyone, they do not teach but impose upon others their beliefs as though they were fact. “The sweetness and the beauty,” they might phrase it as though it should be an activity to be taken joy in, when it is truly nothing of the sort. The last two lines: “Of doing faithfully and cheerfully my duty” show how they instruct it must be done as though they are privileged to take part in it. This translation of the “To the One Who Teaches Me” is both arrant and comic, a little wild and daringly humorous, whether you take Alcott’s poem as a gentile lesson is etiquette or a rambunctious joust at society it is little ironically laughable and rather eloquently written either way.
Louisa May Alcott’s short verse is concise, clever and instructional, but also clear and pleasantly cadenced with plain and simple rhyme scheme. The basic arrangement is sure to appeal to all ages from the old and withered to the young and buoyant, with it’s consistent syllabic form, and sounds make it an especially popular tune to be read among children. It’s meaning is clear and uncomplicated, and this is what it so suspicious, maybe it isn’t a sweet, pithy lesson intended for children, but an audacious and sarcastic ode to freedom. Cordial and brief, whether it is taken literally or satirically, “To the One Who Teaches Me” may not be deep or intensely passionate, but perhaps Louisa May Alcott has discovered that poetry need to be bursting with allegories to be meaningful. Sometimes the simplest answers are the sweetest.