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in 19th-century Hoosier dialect. It is one of his most well known poems. 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,

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