The first gentle rapping at the narrator's door occurred at the beginning of the poem.ran can you rap? Can you rap? … Can you, Gran? And she opened one eye and said to me, man, I'm the best rapping Gran this world's ever seen I'm a tip-top, slip-slap, rap-rap queen. And she rose from her chair in the corner of the room And she started to rap with a bim-bam-boom.