Journal Response #5

Identify and discuss Dr.Seuss' poetic style after perusing a few of his works:

Dr.Seuss' wonderfully inane children's books--arguably for adults as well--are renowned classics of modern day literature and linger in the mind of many as the first bits of poetry that their eyes stumbled upon in youth. But despite their mirthful visage, some poets and critics anathematize Dr.Seuss books as corruptive literature that plagues the mind of a child with erroneous communication skills. This is arguable at best, but if a reader is the logical and particularly pedantic type, they are likely to share in the anger of the critics. Why? For one reason, many Dr.Seuss Books employ improper sentence formations like some of the stanzas in "Fox in Sox,":

Here is lots of
new blue goo now.
Gooey. Gooey.
Blue goo. New goo.
Gluey. Gluey.

But perhaps what is more aggravating to the more academically meticulous readers is the aberrant meters that flow off the tongue with great uniqueness but are wont to vex the mind with confusion. This is considerably noticeable in the famed book "Horton Hears a Who!" in which a curious white elephant strives to rescue a civilization thriving on a bit of dust from imminent annihilation. To use an example from the book:

u / u u / u u / / / u /
1 So Horton stopped splashing. He looked toward the sound.

u / u u / u u / u u /
2 "That's funny," thought Horton. "There's no one around."

u u / u u / u u / u u /
3 Then he heard it again! Just a very faint yelp

u u / u u / u u / u u /
4 As if some tiny person were calling for help

u / u u / u u u / u u
5 "I'll help you," said Horton. "But who are you? Where?"

u / u u / u u / u u /
6 He looked and he looked. He could see nothing there

u u / u u / u u / u u /
7 But a small speck of dust blowing past through the air.


This stanza, written on page 6 of the book, seems thoroughly confusing and improper at first, and by general poetic code it is. However, the meter of Anapests seem prevalent throughout the stanza, albeit there are many catalectic deviations. And thus one would deem the stanza Catalectic Anapestic Tetrameter... or at least one would do so simply if it were not for the incredibly motley first line. The first line is not only composed of six stresses, making it hexameter, but it is also catalectic and boasts the random intervention of a spondee toward the end. This is rather confusing, and the name allotted to such a line in a poem is unknown. Perhaps Dr.Seuss rendered the poem Catalectic Anapestic Tetrameter because it can be abbreviated as C.A.T. but the first line is solely inane.
Aside from aberrant meter, Dr.Seuss employs a great many of the other devices in poetry fantastically. His rhyme scheme is rudimentary yet impeccably consistent and his use of white space correlates with the depiction of a story. To exhibit both, but more so the latter, here is an stanza excerpted from "Horton Hears a Who!":

1 And at 6:56 the next morning he did it. A
2 It sure was a terrible place that he hid it. A
3 He let that small clover drop somewhere inside B
4 Of a great patch of clovers a hundred miles wide! B
5 "Find THAT!" sneered the bird. "But I think you will fail." C
6 And he left D
7 With a flip E
8 Of his black-bottomed tail. C


In lines 6 & 7, the purposeful use of white space is distinguishable from the rest of the text. Whether Dr. Seuss did this to emphasize the actions of the bird separately, or whether it was merely done out of some inexplicable aesthetic favor I shall not arbitrate. Nonetheless it is there.

Personally, I find the myriad of books that Dr.Seuss has produced to be vastly enjoyable. And being a full-blooded advocate for imaginative inanity, it's no wonder.