Along came a spider, Along came Polly
Here are the title of a book and a movie:
Along Came a Spider
Along Came Polly
My question is the following:
Why is it "Along came a spider" and not "Along a spider came"? In other words, when do you use the structure "Preposition + verb + subject"?
Would you please give me some other examples?
Thank you.
Top answer
You can use this structure for literary or poetical effect. 'Along came a spider' is taken from a nursery rhyme: Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider and sat down beside her And frightened Miss Muffet away.
- You can use this structure for literary or poetical effect.
- 'Along came a spider' is taken from a nursery rhyme: Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey.
- Along came a spider and sat down beside her And frightened Miss Muffet away.
- Two more examples are to be found in another nursery rhyme: Incy wincy spider climbed up the waterspout.
- Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
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You can use this structure for literary or poetical effect.
'Along came a spider' is taken from a nursery rhyme:
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider and sat down beside her
0You're talking about locative inversion.
When a prepositional phrase of location or direction is moved to the beginning of a sentence, the subject and verb are inverted.
In this case, just the word 'along' is enough to trigger the inversion.
Onto the table jumped the cat.
Behind the wall was a treasure chest.
At the port arrived an enormous ship.
0
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