Friday, March 02, 2012

Happy Birthday To The Only "Modern Shakespeare", Dr. Seuss!

I mention Dr. Seuss on this blog. A lot.  I think that there are places in the text where Shakespeare and Seuss practically overlap.  Not in tragic storyline, of course, but in mastery at using rhyme and meter to make their point.

Last year for Seuss Day we had a grand old time mashing up our beloved poetic heroes over on Twitter with the #SeussSpeare tag, and repeated the effort this year.

Here, for your enjoyment, are the best of the bunch:

  • Did you hide him here, or there?  I hid Polonius under the stairs.  #SeussSpeare
  • "And To Think That I Saw It At Elsinore Castle".  No, wait, that wasn't Seuss, that was Horatio.  #SeussSpeare
  • And cut him out into little stars, which those Sneetches o'er thar shall wear upon thars. #SeussSpeare
  • I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees! Which are marching to Dunsinane quick as they please! #SeussSpeare
  • Stop! You must not Hop On Top of Pop! Or divide his kingdom between yourselves and send him out alone into a raging storm. #SeussSpeare
  • I would not wish any companion in the world but you. And, of course, Thing One and Thing Two. #SeussSpeare
  • Big M, little m, what begins that way? Macbeth Macduff and murder, all in a Scottish Play. #SeussSpeare
  • Today was good, today was fun. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow are other ones.  #SeussSpeare
  • He meant what he said and he said what he meant, faithful Iago's word is one hundred percent. #SeussSpeare
  • I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where Oxlips and the grickle-grass grows. #SeussSpeare
  • Lear's shoes are off, his feet are cold, he has a Fool he likes to hold. #SeussSpeare   (One of my favorites :))
  • "Regan doth not fear mere Lear sneers..."" #SeussSpeare
  • Cordelia is more near dear Lear's sphere.  #SeussSpeare
  • I may be certain there's a Yurtain in my curtain, but I really might embarrass the old Polonius in my arras. #SeussSpeare
  • O is very useful, you use it when you say, obsessed Othello offed his obedient one and only today. #SeussSpeare
  • Who's that, who's there? I said, who's there? Is that Horatio on the stairs? #SeussSpeare
  • Rest now, prince, let angels sing. Fortinbras shall be our king.  #SeussSpeare
  • Cup is up, Gertrude's down!  Claudius heads out of town.  #SeussSpeare
  • I lay there with Julie. We lay there, we two, and I said, "How I wish I had poison to drink." #SeussSpeare  (courtesy @bardfilm)
  • Unbated and envenom'd, too? Tell me, Laertes, what you planned to do? #SeussSpeare
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!



2 comments:

Dwight Frye said...

One fish, two fish, red fish, and a green-eyed monster.

Sean O'Sullivan said...

Hi Duane,

You are, of course, aware
that these two literary stars
feature in one of the "Epic Rap
Battles of History"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3w2MTXBebg

Dr seuss'"Green Eggs and Ham"
is burnt into my consiousness
since I first read it as a child.