Twisting Perfection
Of all the tongue-twisters in all the world, this one's my favourite.
It's by Dr Seuss, excellent writer of children's books (though whoever put the music on this site should be stuffed head first into the Cat in the Hat's hat).
And in a book of tongue-twisters called Oh Say Can You Say, he wrote this most perfect of rhyming verses. I love verses that rhyme and scan - I hate it when you know they should, but they don't quite. I don't like it when writers twist things round to force a rhyme, such as "the sun did shine" and I don't like it when words should rhyme, but don't, in an "I walked into the kitchen, and there I saw a vixen" kind of way.
This little verse, however, is great.
Upon an island hard to reach
The East Beast sits upon his beach
Upon the west beach sits the West Beast
Each beach beast thinks he's the best beast.
Which beast is best? Well I thought at first
That the East was best and the West was worst
Then I looked again from the west to the east
And I liked the beast on the east beach least.Beast sits upon his beach.
U
It's by Dr Seuss, excellent writer of children's books (though whoever put the music on this site should be stuffed head first into the Cat in the Hat's hat).
And in a book of tongue-twisters called Oh Say Can You Say, he wrote this most perfect of rhyming verses. I love verses that rhyme and scan - I hate it when you know they should, but they don't quite. I don't like it when writers twist things round to force a rhyme, such as "the sun did shine" and I don't like it when words should rhyme, but don't, in an "I walked into the kitchen, and there I saw a vixen" kind of way.
This little verse, however, is great.
Upon an island hard to reach
The East Beast sits upon his beach
Upon the west beach sits the West Beast
Each beach beast thinks he's the best beast.
Which beast is best? Well I thought at first
That the East was best and the West was worst
Then I looked again from the west to the east
And I liked the beast on the east beach least.Beast sits upon his beach.
U
posted by Daphne at 7:43 pm
2 Comments:
You've inspired me. Here's today's contribution from me to (a) the world of poetry and (b) the general merriment around here:
The East Beast's a he
And the West Beast's a he
But the Beast that's a she
Sells seashells by the sea
Shore.
I think Dr. Suess
Was perhaps on the juice
She says as she shrugs
"maybe it was drugs"
He makes kids smile
Getting richer all the while
Now I'm thinking
I should start drinking
I'll put the twinkie back
I'll snort some crack
I'll write some childrens verse
And have tons of cash in my purse!
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