Poets And Poetry Of New England
Doctor Seuss: Selected Poems
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AND TO THINK THAT I SAW IT ON MULBERRY STREET
by Dr. Seuss. New York: Vanguard, 1937. (The words from the "iconotext.")
For Helen McC. Mother of the One and Original Marco
|| |When I leave home to walk to school,
Dad always says to me,
"Marco, keep your eyelids up
And see what you can see."
But when I tell him where I've been
And what I think I've seen,
He looks at me and sternly says,
"Your eyesight's much too keen.
"Stop telling such outlandish tales.
Stop turning minnows into whales.
Now, what can I say
When I get home today?||
||All the long way to school
And all the way back,
I've looked and I've looked
And I've kept careful track.
But all that I've noticed,
Except my own feet,
Was a horse and a wagon
On Mulberry Street.| ||
|| That's nothing to tell of,
That won't do, of course...
Just a broken-down wagon
That's drawn by a horse.
That can't be my story. That only a start.
I'll say that a ZEBRA was pulling that cart!
And that is a story that no one can beat,
When I say that I saw it on Mulberry Street.| ||
||Yes, the zebra is fine.
But I think it's a shame,
Such a marvelous beast
With a cart that's so tame.
The story would really be better to hear
If the driver I saw were a charioteer.
A gold and blue chariot's something to meet,
Rumbling like thunder down Mulberry Street!| ||
|| No, it won't do at all...
A zebra's too small.
A reindeer is better;
He's fast and he's fleet,|
And he'd look mighty smart
On old Mulberry Street.||
|| Hold on a minute!
There's something wrong!
A reindeer hates the way it feels
To pull a thing that runs on wheels.|
He'd be much happier, instead,
If he could pull a fancy sled.||
|| Hmmmm...A reindeer and sleigh...
Say--anyone could think of that,
Jack or Fred or Joe or Nat---
Say, even Jane could think of that.
But it isn't too late to make one little change.
A sleigh and an ELEPHANT! There's something strange!|
I'll pick one with plenty of power and size,
A blue one with plenty of fun in his eyes.
And then, just to give him a little more tone,
Have a Rajah, with rubies, perched high on a throne.
Say! That makes a story that no one can beat,
When I say that I saw it on Mulberry Street.||
|| But now I don't know...
It still doesn't seem right.
An elephant pulling a thing that's so light
Would whip it around in the air like a kite.|
But he'd look simply grand
With a great big brass band!||
||A band that's so good should have someone to hear it,
But it's going so fast that it's hard to keep near it.
I'll put on a trailer! I know they won't mind
If a man sits and listens while hitched on behind.|
But now is it fair? Is it fair what I've done?
I'll bet those wagons weigh more than a ton.
That's really too heavy a load for one beast;
I'll give him some helpers. He needs two, at least.||
|| But now what worries me is this..
Mulberry Street runs into Bliss,|
Unless there's something I can fix up,
There'll be an awful traffic mix-up!||
||It takes Police to do the trick,
To guide them through where traffic's thick ---
It takes Police to do the trick.|
They'll never crash now. They'll race at top speed
With Sergeant Mulvaney, himself, in the lead.||
|| The Mayor is there
And he thinks it is grand,
And he raises his hat
As they dash by the stand.|
The Mayor is there
And the Aldermen too,
All waving big banners
Of red, white and blue.
And that is a story that NO ONE can beat
When I say that I saw it on Mulberry Street!||
||With a roar of its motor an airplane appears
And dumps out confetti while everyone cheers.|
And that makes a story that's really not bad!
But it still could be better. Suppose that I add.........||
||...A Chinese man A big Magician
Who eats with sticks.... Doing tricks...|
A ten-foot beard No time for more,
That needs a comb.... I'm almost home.||
|| I swung 'round the corner
And dashed through the gate,
I ran up the steps
And I felt simply GREAT!
||FOR I HAD A STORY THAT NO ONE COULD BEAT!
AND TO THINK THAT I SAW IT ON MULBERRY STREET|
But Dad said quite calmly,
"Just draw up your stool
And tell me the sights
On the way home from school."
There was so much to tell, I JUST COULDN'T BEGIN!
Dad looked at me sharply and pulled at his chin.
He frowned at me sternly from there in his seat,
"Was there nothing to look at...no people to greet?
Did nothing excite you or make your heart beat?"||
|| "Nothing," I said, growing red as a beet,
"But a plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street."| ||
McELLIGOT"S POOL by Dr. Seuss (the words from the "iconotext.")
New York: Random House, 1947.
"This book is dedicated to T.R. Geisel of Springfield, Mass., The World's Greatest Authority on Blackfish, Fiddler Crabs and Deegel Trout"
|| | Young man," laughed the farmer,
"You're sort of a fool!
You'll never catch fish
In McElligot's Pool!"||
|| | The pool is too small.
And, you might as well know it,
When people have junk
Here's the place that they throw it.
"You might catch a boot
Or you might catch a can.
You might catch a bottle,
But listen, young man...
If you sat fifty years
With your worms and your wishes,
You'd grow a long beard
Long before you'd catch fishes!"||
||"Hmmm..." answered Marco,
"It may be you're right.
I've been here three hours
Without one single bite.
There might be no fish...
"...But, again,
Well, there might!" |
"'Cause you never can tell
What goes on down below!
"This pool might be bigger
Than you or I know!"||
||This MIGHT be a pool, like I've read of in books,
Connected to one of those underground brooks! |
An underground river that starts here and flows
Right under the pasture! And then...well, who knows? ||
||It might go along, down where no one can see,
Right under State Highway Two-Hundred-and -Three!
Right under the wagons! Right under the toes
Of Mrs. Umbroso who's hanging out clothes!|
It might keep on flowing...perhaps...who can tell?...
Right under the people in Sneeden's Hotel!
Right under the grass where they're playing croquet!
Then under the mountains and far, far away!||
||This might be a river,
Now mightn't it be,
Connecting
McElligot's
Pool
With
The
Sea!
Then maybe some fish might be swimming toward me!
(If such a thing could be,
They certainly would be!)| ||
|| | Some very smart fellow might point out the way
To the place where I'm fishing. And that's why I say
If I wait long enought; if I'm patient and cool,
Who knows what I'll catch in McElligott's Pool!||
|| I might catch a thin fish,
I might catch a stout fish.
I might catch a short
or
a
long,
long
drawn-out fish!|
Any kind! Any shape! Any color or size!
I might catch some fish that would open your eyes!||
||I won't be surprised if a Dog Fish appears!
Complete with a collar and long floppy ears!
Whoffing along! And perhaps he might chase
A whole lot of Catfish right straight to this place!| ||
|| I might catch a fish
With a pinwheel-like tail!
I might catch a fish
Who has fins like a sail!
I might catch some young fish
Some high-jumping friskers.
I might catch an old one
With long flowing whiskers!|
I might catch a fish
With a long curly nose.
I might catch a fish
Like a rooster that crows.
I might catch a fish
With a checkerboard belly,
Or even a fish
Made of strawberry jelly!||
|| I might catch a Sea Horse
(Now mightn't I now...?)|
I might catch a fish
Who is partly a cow!||
|| | Some fish from the Tropics, all sunburned and hot,
Might decide to swimp up!
Well they might...
Might they not?
Racing up north for a chance to get cool,
Full steam ahead for McElligot's Pool!||
|| Some Eskimo Fish
From beyond Hudson Bay
Might decide to swim down;
Might be headed this way!
It's a pretty long trip,
But they might
And they may. | ||
|| I might catch an eel...
(Well, I might. It depends.)
...A long twisting eel
With a lot of strange bends
And, oddly enough,
With a head on both ends!
One doesn't catch this kind of fish as a rule,
But the chances are fine in McElligot's Pool!| ||
||I might catch a fish
With a terrible grouch...|
Or an Australian fish
With a kangaroo's pouch!||
||Who wants to catch small ones like mackerel or trout!
SAY! I'll catch a Saw Fish with such a long snout
That he needs an assistant to help him about!|
If I wait long enough, if I'm patient and cool,
Who knows what I'll catch in McElligot's Pool!||
||Some rough-neck old Lobster,
All gristle and muscle,
Might grab at my bait,
Then would I have a tussle!
To land one so tough might take two or three hours,
But the next might be easy...||
|| ...The kind that likes flowers.| ||
|| I might catch some sort of a fast-moving bloke
Who zips through the waves with an over-arm stroke!
(I might and I may and that's really no joke!)| ||
||A fish even faster!
A fish, if you please,
Who slides down the sides
Of strange islands on skis!
He might ski on over and pay me a visit.
That's not impossible...really, now is it?| ||
||Some Circus Fish!
Fish from an acrobat school,
Might stage a big show in McElligot's Pool! | ||
||Or I might catch a fish
From a stranger place yet!
From the world's highest river
In far-off Tibet,
Where the falls are so steep
That it's dangerous to ride 'em,
So the fish put up chutes
And they float down beside 'em.| ||
||From the world's deepest ocean,
From way down below,
From down in the mud where the deep-divers go,
From down in the mire and the muck and the murk,
I might catch some fish who are all going, "GLURK!"| ||
|| WHALES!
I'll catch whales!
Yes, a whole herd of whales!
All spouting their spouts
And all thrashing their tails!
I'll catch fifty whales,
Then I'll stop for the day
'Cause there's nothing that's bigger
Than whales, so they say.|
Still, of course,
It might be...||
||...that there IS something bigger!
Some sort of a kind of
A THING-A-MA-JIGGER!!
A fish that's so big, if you know what I mean,
That he makes a whale look like a tiny sardine! | ||
||Oh, the sea is so full of a number of fish,
If a fellow is patient, he might get his wish!| ||
|| And that's why I think
That I'm not such a fool
When I sit here and fish
In McElligot's Pool!| ||
If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss. New York: Random House, 1950. Rprt. in
A Hatful of Seuss (New York: Random House, 1996). The words from the "iconotext."
|| |It's a pretty good zoo,"
Said young Gerald Mc Grew,
"And the fellow who runs it
Seems proud of it, too."||
||But if I ran the zoo,"
Said young Gerald McGrew,
"I'd make a few changes.
That's just what I'd do..."|
The lions and tigers and that kind of stuff
They have up here now are not quite good enough.
You see things like these in just any old zoo.
They're awfully old-fashioned. I want something new!||
||So I'd open each cage. I'd unlock every pen,
let the animals go, and start over again.
And, somehow or other, I think I could find
Some beasts of a much more un-usual kind.| ||
||A four-footed lion's not much of a beast.
The one in my zoo will have ten feet, at least!
Five legs on the left and five more on the right.
Then people will stare and they'll say, "What a sight!
This Zoo Keeper, New Keeper Gerald's quite keen.
That's the gol-darndest lion I ever have seen!"| ||
||My New Zoo, McGrew Zoo, will make people talk.
My New Zoo, McGrew Zoo, will make people gawk
At the strangest odd creatures that ever did walk.
I'll get, for my zoo, a new sort-of-a-hen
Who roosts in another hen's topknot, and then
Another one roosts in the topknot of his,
And another in his, and another in HIS,
And so forth and upward and onward, gee whizz!| ||
||But that's just a start. I'll do better than that.
They'll see me next day, in my zoo-keeper's hat,
Coming into my zoo with an Elephant-Cat!|
They'll be so surprised they'll all swallow their gum.
They'll ask, when they see my strange animals come,
"Where do you suppose he gets things like that from?
His animals all have such very odd faces.
I'll bet he must hunt them in rather odd places!"||
||And that's what I'll do,
Said young Gerald McGrew.
If you want to catch beasts you don't see every day,
You have to go places quite out-of-the-way.
You have to places no other can get to.
You have to get cold and you have to get wet, too.
Up past the North Pole, where the frozen winds squeal,
I'll go and I'll hunt in my Skeegle-mobile
And bring back a family of What-do-you-know!
And that's how my New Zoo, McGrew Zoo, will grow.| ||
||I'll hunt in the mountains of Zomba-ma-Tant
With helpers who all wear their eyes at a slant,
And capture a fine fluffy bird called the Bustard
Who only eats custard with sauce made of mustard.
And, also, a very fine beast called the Flustard
Who only eats mustard with sauce made of custard.| ||
||I'll catch'em in caves and I'll catch'em in brooks,
I'll catch'em in crannies, I'll catch'em in nooks
That you don't read about in geography books.|
I'll catch'em in countries that no one can spell
Like the country of Mota-fa-Pott-fa-Pell.
In a country like that, if a hunter is clever,
He'll hunt up some beasts that you never saw ever!||
||I'll load up five boats with a family of Joats
Whose feet are like cows', but wear squirrel-skin coats
And sit down like dogs, but have voices like goats --
Excepting they can't sing the very high notes.| ||
|| |And then I'll go down to the Wilds of Nantucket
And capture a family of Lunks in a bucket.
Then people will say, "Now I like that boy heaps.
His New Zoo, McGrew Zoo, is growing by leaps.
He captures them wild and he captures them meek,
He captures them slim and he captures them sleek.
What do you suppose he will capture next week?"||
||I'll capture one tiny. I'll capture one cute.
I'll capture a deer that no hunter would shoot.
A deer that's so nice he could sleep in your bed
If it weren't for those horns that he has on his head.| ||
|| |And speaking of horns that are just a bit queer,
I'll bring back a very odd family of deer:
A father, a mother, two sisters, a brother
Whose horns are connected, from one to the other,
Whose horns are so mixed they can't tell them apart,
Can't tell where they end and can't tell where they start!
Each deer's mighty puzzled. He's never yet found
If his horns are hers, or the other way 'round.||
||I'll capture them fat and I'll capture them scrawny.
I'll capture a scraggle-foot Mulligatawny,
A high-stepping animal fast as the wind
From the blistering sands of the Desert of Zind.
This beast is the beast that the brave chieftains ride
When they want to go fast to find some place to hide.
A Mulligatawny is fine for my zoo
And so is a chieftain. I'll bring one back, too.| ||
||In the Far Western part
Of south-east North Dakota
Lives a very fine animal
Called the Iota.
But I'll capture one
Who is even much finer
In the north-eastern west part
Of South Carolina.
When people see him, they will say, "Now, by thunder!
This New Zoo, McGrew Zoo, is really a wonder!"| ||
||Most beasts are quite friendly, but still, in some lands
Some beasts are too dangerous to catch with bare hands.
For those that are ugly and vicious and mean
I'll build a Bad-Animal-Catching-Machine.
It's rather expensive to build such a kit,
But with it a hunter can never get bit.| ||
||A zoo should have bugs, so I'll capture a Thwerll
Whose legs are snarled up in a terrible snerl.|
And then I'll go out and I'll capture some Chuggs,
Some keen-shooter, mean-shooter, bean-shooter bugs.||
||I'll go to the African island of Yerka
And bring back a tizzle-topped Tufted Mazurka
A kind of canary with quite a tall throat.
His neck is so long, if he swallows an oat
For breakfast the first day of April, they say
It has to go down such a very long way
That it gets to his stomach the fifteenth of May.| ||
||I'll bag a big bug
Who is very surprising,
A feller who has
A propeller for rising
And zooming around
Making cross-country hops,
From Texas to Boston
With only two stops.
Now that sort of thing
For a bug is just tops!|
And when I've caught him,
Then the next thing you know
I'll go and I'll capture
A wild Tick-Tack-Toe,
With X's that win
And with Zeros that lose.
He'll look might good
In this Zoo of McGrew's.||
||I'll bring back a Gusset, a Gherkin, a Gasket
And also a Gootch from the wilds of Nantasket.|
And eight Persian Princes will carry the basket,
But what their names are, I don't know. So don't ask it.||
||In a cave in Kartoom lives a beast called the Natch
That no other hunter's been able to catch.
He's hidden for years in his cave with a pout
And no one's been able to make him come out.
But I'll coax him out with a wonderful meal
That's cooked by my cooks in my Cooker-mobile.|
They'll fix up a dish that is just to his taste;
Three chicken croquettes made of library paste,
Then sprinkled with peanut shucks, pickled and spiced,
Then baked at 600 degrees and then iced.
It's might hard cooking to cook up such feasts
But that's how the New Zoo, McGrew Zoo, gets beasts.||
||I'll go to the far-away Mountains of Tobsk
Near the River of Nobsk, and I'll bring back an Obsk,
A sort of a kind of a Thing-a-ma-Bobsk
Who only eats rhubarb and corn-on-the-cobsk.
Then people will flock to my zoo in a mobsk.
"Mc Grew," they will say, "does a wonderful jobsk!
He hunts with such vim and he hunts with such vigor,
His New Zoo, McGrew Zoo, gets bigger and bigger!"| ||
||And, speaking of birds, there's the Russian Palooski,
Whose headski is redski and belly is blueski.
I'll get one of them for my Zooski McGrewski.| ||
||The whole town will gasp, "Why, this boy never sleeps!
No keeper before ever kept what he keeps!
There's no telling WHAT that young fellow will do!"
And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo
And
Bring
Back
an IT-KUTCH
a PREEP
and a PROO|
NERKLE
NERD
and a SEERSUCKER, too!||
|| | I'll hunt in the Jungles of Hippo-no-Hungus
And bring back a flock of wild Bippo-no-Bungus!
The Bippo-no-Bungus from Hippo-no-Hungus
Are better than those down in Dippo-no-Dungus
And smoarter than those out in Nippo-no-Nungus.
And that's why I'll catch'em in Hippo-no-Hungus
Instead of those others in Nungus and Dungus.
And people will say when they see these Bips bounding,
"This Zoo Keeper, New Keeper's simply astounding!
He travels so far that you'd think he would drop!
When do you suppose this young fellow will stop?"||
||Stop...?
Well, I should.
But I won't stop until
I've captured the Fizz-ma-Wizza-ma-Dill,
The world's biggest bird from the Island of Gwark
Who only eats pine trees and spits out the bark.
And boy! When I get him back home to my park,
The whole world will say, "Young McGrew's made his mark.
He's built a zoo better than Noah's whole Ark!
These wonderful, marvelous beasts that he chooses
Have made him the greatest of all the McGrewses!"| ||
|| | "WOW!" They'll all cheer,
"What this zoo must be worth!
It's the gol-darndest zoo
On the face of the earth!" ||
|| "Yes...
That's what I'd do,"
Said young Gerald McGrew.
"I'd make a few changes
If I ran the zoo."| ||
ON BEYOND ZEBRA by Dr. Seuss (the words from the "iconotext").
New York: Random House, 1955.
To Helen.
|| |Said Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell,
My very young friend who is learning to spell:
"The A is for Ape. And the B is for Bear.
"The C is for Camel. The H is for Hare.
"The M is for Mouse. And the R is for Rat.
"I know all the twenty-six letters like that...||
|| | ...through to Z is for Zebra. I know them all well."
Said Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell.
"So now I know everything anyone knows
"From beginning to end. From the start to the close.
"Because Z is as far as the alphabet goes."||
|| Then he almost fell flat on his face on the floor
When I picked up the chalk and drew one letter more!
A letter he never had dreamed of before!
And I said, "You can stop, if you want, with the Z
"Because most people stop with the Z
"But not me!|
"In the places I go there are things that I see
"That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z.
"I'm telling you this 'cause you're one of my friends.
"My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!||
||My alphabet starts with this letter called YUZZ.
It's the letter I use to spell Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz.
You'll be sort of surprised what there is to be found
Once you go beyond Z and start poking around!| ||
|| | So, on beyond Zebra!
Explore!
Like Columbus!
Discover new letters!
Like WUM is for Wumbus,
My high-spouting whale who lives high on a hill
And who never comes down 'til it's time to refill.
So, on beyond Z! It's high time you were shown
That you really don't know all there is to be known.||
|| Then just step a step further past Wum is for Wumbus
And there you'll find UM. And the Um is for Umbus
A sort of a Cow, with one head and one tail,
But to milk this great cow you need more than one pail!
She has ninety-nine faucets that give milk quite nicely.
Perhaps ninety-nine. I forget just precisely.
And, boy! She is something most people don't see
Because most people stop at the Z
But not me!| ||
|| |I ramble, I scramble, through swampf and through swumpf
Where the letters get better. Like letters like HUMPF.
There's a real handy letter.
What's handy about it ...?
You just can't spell Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer without it.||
|| If you stay home with Zebra,
You're stuck in a rut.
But on beyond Zebra,
You're anything but!
Why, I know a fine fancy letter called FUDDLE.
I use it in spelling Miss Fuddle-dee-Duddle.
And, oh! What a bird-of-a-bird-of-a-bird-of!
Her tail is the longest that's ever been heard of.
So long and so fancy she'd be in a fix
If she didn't have helpers. I takes about six
To tag along, hoisting Miss Fuddle-dee-Duddle's
Wonderful tail out of muddle-dee-puddles.| ||
||And GLIKK is for Glikker who lives in wild weeds
And spends his time juggling fresh cinnamon seeds
Which he's usually able to find in great number
Excepting, of course, in the month of SeptUmber
When cinnamon seeds aren't around in great number.
So that month he juggles with seeds of cucumber.| ||
|| And NUH is the letter is Use to spell Nutches
Who live in small caves, known as Nitches, for hutches.
These Nutches have troubles, the biggest of which is
The fact there are many more Nutches than Nitches.
Each Nutch in a Nitch knows that some other Nutch
Would like to move into his Nitch very much.
So each Nutch in a Nitch has to watch that small Nitch
Or Nutches who haven't got Nitches will snitch.| ||
|| Then we go on to SNEE. And the SNEE is for Sneedle
A terrible kind of ferocious mos-keedle
Whose hum-dinger stinger is sharp as a needle.|
The Sneedle's too tough to be killed with a smack
So he has to be hunted on elephant back
And your eyes and the elephant's have to be keen
And you have to aim fast and you have to hit clean
And the bullet you shoot is a stale navy bean
That you've dunked for three weeks in old sour kerosene
Which is awfully hard work. So it's easy to see
Why most people stop at the Z. But not me!||
|| When you go beyond Zebra,
Who knows...?
There's no telling
What wonderful things
You might find yourself spelling!
Like QUAN is for Quandary, who lives on a shelf
In a hole in the ocean alone by himself
And he worries, each day, from the dawn's early light
And he worries, just worries, far into the night.
He just stands there and worries. He simply can't stop...
Is his top-side his bottom? O bottom-side top?| ||
|| | And THNAD is for Thnadners
And oh, are they sad, oh!
The big one, you see, has the smaller one's shadow.
The shadow the small Thnadner has should be his.
I don't understand it, but that's how it is.
A terrible mix-up in shadows! Gee-Whizz!||
|| And SPAZZ is a letter I use to spell Spazzim
A beast who belongs the Nazzim of Bazzim.
Handy for traveling. That's why he has 'im.
More easy to pack than a suitcase or grip,
Those horns carry all that he needs on a trip:
A thread and a needle for mending his socks,
His tooth brush,
A cup,
And two three-handed clocks.
And his velvet umbrella,
His vegetable chopper,
And also his gold-plated popping-corn popper
And a grasshopper cage for his favorite grass hopper.| ||
|| And FLOOB is for Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs
Who bounce in the water like blubbery tubs.
They're no good to eat.
You can't cook 'em like steaks.
But they're handy in crossing small oceans and lakes.| ||
|| | And ZATZ is the letter I use to spell Zatz-it
Whose nose is so high that 'most nobody pats it
And patting his lonely old nose is the least
That a fellow could do for this fine friendly beast
So, to get there and do it, I built an invention:
The Three-Seater Zatz-it Nose-Patting Extension.
If you try to drive one,
You'll certainly see
Why most people stop at the Z
But not me!||
|| | And JOGG is my letter for spelling Jogg-oons
Who doodle around in the far desert dunes
Just doodle around, crooning very sad tunes
About peppermint, peanuts and pebbles and prunes
And paint pots, and polka dots, pin heads and pigs
And their grandmother's grandfather's step-sister's wigs.
So you see!
There's no end
To the things you might know,
Depending how far beyond Zebra you go!
|| | I've a letter called FLUNN. And the FLUNN is for Flunnel
A softish nice fellow who hides in a tunnel.
He only comes out of his hole, I'm afraid,
When the right kind of softish nice music is played
On a kind of a hunting horn called the o'Grunth.
And to learn how to play it takes month after month
Of practising, practising. Isn't much fun-th.
And, besides, it's quite heavy. Weighs almost a tun-th.
That's why few people bother to play the o'Grunth
So the Flunnel's been out of his tunnel just one-th.||
|| |And 'way, 'way past Z is a letter called ITCH
And the ITCH is for Itch-a-pods, animals which
Race around back and forth, forth and back, through the air
On a very high sidewalk between HERE and THERE.
They're afraid to stay THERE. They're afraid to stay HERE.
They think THERE is too Far. They think HERE is too NEAR.
And since HERE is too NEAR and out THERE is too FAR
They are too scared to roost where-so-ever they are.||
|| There's a letter called YEKK. And the YEKK is for Yekko
Who howls in an underground grotto in Gekko.
These Yekkos love echoes, and this is their motto:
"For best Yekko echoes, try Gekko, our grotto!"| ||
|| | Oh, the things you can find
If you don't stay behind!
On a world near the sun live two brothers called VROOMS
Who, strangely enough, are built sort of like brooms
And they're suck all alone up there high in the blue
And so, to kill time, just for something to do
Each one of these fellows takes turns with the other
In sweeping the dust off his world with his brother.||
|| And HI! is my letter for High Gargel-orum.
For getting me places real fast, I'm all for 'em.
They puffle along and their brakes never squeak
And they run every hour every day of the week
From the town of North Nubb
To the town of East Ounce,
Makking stops at West Bunglefield, Yupster and Jounce
And at Ipswich and Nipswich and, also, South Bounce
And another small town that's too hard to pronounce.| ||
|| | The places I took him!
I tried hard to tell
Young Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell
A few brand-new wonderful words he might spell.
I led him around and I tried hard to show
There are things beyond Z that most people don't know.
I took him past Zebra. As far as I could.
And I think, perhaps, maybe I did him some good...||
|| Because, finally, he said:
"This is really great stuff!
"And I guess the old alphabet
ISN'T enough!"| ||
|| NOW the letters he uses are something to see!
Most people still stop at the Z...
But not HE!
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1957.
The words from the "iconotext."
|| |The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold, wet day.||
|| |And then
Something went BUMP!
How that bump made us jump!||
|| We looked!
Then we saw him step in on the mat!
We looked!
And we saw him!
The Cat in the Hat!
And he said to us,
"Why do you sit there like that?|
I know it is wet
And the sun is not sunny.
But we can have
Lots of fun that is funny!"||
|| "I know some good games we could play,"
Said the cat.
"I know some new tricks,"
Said the Cat in the Hat.
"A lot of good tricks.
I will show them to you.
Your mother
Will not mind at all if I do."
Then Sally and I
Did not know what to say.
Our mother was out of the house
For the day.| ||
|| | But our fish said, "No! No!
Make that cat go away!
Tell that Cat in the Hat
You do NOT want to play.
He should not be here.
He should not be about.
He should not be here
When your mother is out!"||
|| "Now! Now! Have no fear.
Have no fear!" said the cat.
"My tricks are not bad,"
Said the Cat in the Hat.
"Why, we can have
Lots of good fun, if you wish,
With a game that I call
UP-UP-UP with a fish!"|
"Put me down!" said the fish.
"This is no fun at all!
Put me down!" said the fish.
"I do NOT wish to fall!"||
|| "Have no fear!" said the cat.
"I will not let you fall.
I will hold you up high
As a I stand on a ball.
With a book on one hand!
And a cup on my hat!
But that is not ALL I can do!"
Said the cat...| ||
|| "Look at me!
Look at me now!" said the cat.
"With a cup and a cake
On the top of my hat!
I can hold up TWO books!
I can hold up the fish!
And a little toy ship!
And some milk on a dish!
And look!
I can hop up and down on the ball!
But that is not all!
Oh, no.
That is not all...| ||
|| "Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me NOW!
It is fun to have fun
But you have to know how.
I can hold up the cup
And the milk and the cake!
I can hold up these books!
And the fish on a rake!
I can hold the toy ship
And a little toy man!
And look! With my tail
I can hold a red fan!
I can fan with the fan
As I hop on the ball!
But that is not all.
Oh, no.
That is not all...."| ||.
|| |That is what the cat said...
Then he fell on his head!
He came down with a bump
From up there on the ball.
And Sally and I,
We saw ALL the things fall!||
|| And our fish came down, too.
He fell into a pot!
He said, "Do I like this?
Oh, no! I do not.
This is not a good game,"
Said our fish as he lit.
"No, I do not like it,
Not one little bit!"| ||
|| | "Now look what you did!"
Said the fish to the cat.
"Now look at this house!
Look at this! Look at that!
You sank our toy ship,
Sank it deep in the cake.
You shook up our house
And you bent our new rake.
You SHOULD NOT be here
When our mother is not.
You get out of this house!"
Said the fish in the pot.||
|| | "But I like to be here.
Oh, I like it a lot!"
Said the Cat in the Hat
To the fish in the pot.
"I will NOT go away.
I do NOT wish to go!
And so," said the Cat in the Hat,
"So
so
so...
I will show you
Another good game that I know!"||
|| And then he ran out.
And, then, fast as a fox,
The Cat in the Hat
Came back in with a box.|
A big red wood box.
It was shut with a hook.
"Now look at this trick,"
Said the cat.
"Take a look!"||
|| | Then he got up on top
With a tip of his hat.
"I call this game FUN-IN-A-BOX,"
Said the cat.
"In this box are two things
I will show to you now.
You will like these two things,"
Said the cat with a bow.||
|| | "I will pick up the hook.
You will see something new.
Two things. And I call them
Thing One and Thing Two.
These Things will not bite you.
They want to have fun."
Then, out of the box
Came Thing Two and Thing One!
And they ran to us fast.
They said, "How do you do?
Would you like to shake hands
With Thing One and Thing Two?"||
|| And Sally and I
Did not know what to do.
So we had to shake hands
With Thing One and Thing Two.
We shook their two hands.
But our fish said, "No! No!
Those Things should not be
In this house! Make them go!|
"They should not be here
When your mother is not!
Put them out! Put them out!"
Said the fish in the pot.||
|| | "Have no fear, little fish,"
Said the Cat in the Hat.
"These Things are good Things."
And he gave them a pat.
"They are tame. Oh, so tame!
They have come here to play.
They will give you some fun
On this wet, wet, wet day."||
|| "Now here is a game that like,"
Said the cat.
"They like to fly kites,"
Said the Cat in the Hat.|
"No! Not in the house!"
Said the fish in the pot.
"They should not fly kites
In a house! They should not.
Oh, the things they will bump!
Oh, the things they will hit!
Oh, I do not like it!
Not one little bit!"||
|| Thing Two and Thing One!
They ran up! They ran down!
On the string of one kite
We saw Mother's new gown!
Her gown with the dots
That are pink, white and red.
Then we saw one kite bump
On the head of her bed!| ||
|| |Then those Things ran about
With big bumps, jumps and kicks
And with hops and big thumps
And all kinds of bad tricks.
And I said,
"I do NOT like the way that they play!
If Mother could see this,
Oh, what would she say!"||
|| |Then our fish said, "LOOK! LOOK!"
And our fish shook with fear.
"Your mother is on her way home!
Oh, what will she do to us?
What will she say?
Oh, she will not like it
To find us this way!"||
|| "So, DO something! Fast!" said the fish.
"Do you hear!
I saw her. Your mother!
Your mother is near!
So, as fast as you can,
Think of something to do!
You will have to get rid of
Thing One and Thing Two!"| ||
|| So, as fast as I could,
I went after my net.
And I said, "With my net
I can get them I bet.
I bet, with my net,
I can get those Things yet!"| ||
|| Then I let down my net.
It came down with a PLOP!
And I had them! AT last!
Those two Things had to stop.
Then I said to the cat,
"Now you do as I say.
You pack up those Things
And you take them away!"|
"Oh dear!" said the cat.
"You did not like our game...
Oh dear.
What a shame!
What a shame!
What a shame!"||
|| Then he shut up the Things
In the box with the hook.
And the cat went away
With a sad kind of look.|
"That is good," said the fish.
"He has gone away. Yes.
But your mother will come.
She will find this big mess!
And this mess is so big
And so deep and so tall,
We can not pick it up.
There is no way at all!"||
|| |And THEN!
Who was back in the house?
Why, the cat!
"Have no fear of this mess,"
Said the Cat in the Hat.
"I always pick up all my playthings
And so...
I will show you another
Good trick that I know!"||
|| Then we saw him pick up
All the things that were down.
He picked up the cake,
And the rake, and the gown,
And the milk, and the strings,
And the books, and the dish,
And the fan, and the cup,
And the ship, and the fish.
And he put them away.
Then he said, "That is that."
And then he was gone
With a tip of his hat.| ||
|| Then our mother came in
And she said to us two,
"Did you have any fun?
Tell me. What did you do?"
And Sally and I did not know
What to say.
Should we tell her
The things that went on there that day?|
Should we tell her about it?
Now, what SHOULD we do?
Well...
What would YOU do
If your mother asked YOU?||
Many Daves by Dr. Seuss. From the Sneetches and Other Stories. New York: Random House, 1961. Reprint in A Hatful of Dr. Seuss (New York: Random House, 1996). Words from the "iconotext."
|| |Did I ever tell you that Mrs. McCave
Had twenty-three sons and she named them all Dave?||
||Well, she did. And that wasn't a smart thing to do.
You see, when she wants one and calls out, "Yoo-Hoo!
Come into the house, Dave!" she doesn't get one.
All twenty-three Daves of hers come on the run!| ||
|| | This makes things quite difficult at the McCaves'
As you can imagine, with so many Daves.
And often she wishes that, when they were born,
She had named one of them Bodkin Van Horn
And one of them Hoos-Foos. And of one of them Snimm.
And one of them Hot-Shot. And one Sunny Jim.
And one of them Shadrack. And one of them Blinkey.
And one of them Stuffy. And one of them Stinkey.
Another one Putt-Putt. Another one Moon Face.
Another one Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face.
And one of them Ziggy. And one Soggy Muff.
One Buffalo Bill. And one Biffalo Buff.
And one of them Sneepy. And one Weepy Weed.
And one Paris Garters. And one Harris Tweed.
And one of them Sir Michael Carmichael Zutt
And one of them Oliver Boliver Butt
And one of them Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate...
But she didn't do it. And now it's too late.||
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