Which poem in the book begins with the line 'How doth the little crocodile'?

The poem in *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland* that begins “How doth the little crocodile” is “How Doth the Little Crocodile.”

Alice recites it in Chapter 2 while trying to remember Isaac Watts’s moral poem “Against Idleness and Mischief.” Watts’s original begins “How doth the little busy bee,” but Alice’s memory transforms the industrious bee into a deceptive crocodile.

Carroll’s parody reverses the lesson of the source poem. Instead of praising diligence, it describes a crocodile that appears welcoming while luring fish toward its jaws. The contrast is typical of the book’s comic treatment of Victorian moral instruction.

It is easy to confuse this poem with “The Mouse’s Tale,” “The Lobster Quadrille,” or “Beautiful Soup,” all of which also appear in the novel. “Beautiful Soup” belongs to the Mock Turtle, while “The Lobster Quadrille” is sung later during Alice’s encounter with the Mock Turtle and Gryphon.