Question

PLEAASEEE!!! Can someone please paraphrase and summarize and label which is which, I need 5% extra credit for my last unit test for my English class, PLEASEE HELP!
Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife but couldn't keep her;
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.

Peter, peter pumpkin eater,
had another but didn't love her;
Peter learned to read and spell,
And then he loved her very well.

(Opie and P. Opie, the oxford dictionary of nursery rhymes (Oxford University Press, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 410.)

Answer 1

To summarize, this is about a man named Peter, whose wife cheated on him (he couldn't keep her). Peter murders this wife, and then puts her body in a pumpkin shell. In the second stanza, we can infer that Peter has a second wife, who he can love only after becoming literate (being able to read and write).

As for the rhyme scheme, both stanzas are AABB. This is because the last words in the first two lines rhyme with each other (eater, keep her; shell, well), as well as the last words in the last two lines (eater, love her; spell, well).