Dr. Seuss: A poem to celebrate Theodor Seuss Geisel’s birthday
Mar 2, 2020, 11:04 AM | Updated: 11:06 am
American author and illustrator Dr Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904 - 1991) sits at his drafting table in his home office with a copy of his book, 'The Cat in the Hat', La Jolla, California, April 25, 1957. (Photo by Gene Lester/Getty Images)
(Photo by Gene Lester/Getty Images)
Dr. Seuss
(CNN) — You read his timeless rhymes
You watched all the cartoons
The “Cat in the Hat”
Thing One, and Thing Two
From Random House
But do you know how it all started?
Do you know where it all began?
The story of the man who
brought the world “Green Eggs and Ham”?
No need to sit and worry
No — we’ll explain it all
Just sit back in your chair, relax and
Silent that next call
From Random House
His mom was Henrietta
His dad was Theodore
They brought him to the world
March 2, 1904
At night she’d sing her songs for him
Always at bedtime
Later on in life he said
That’s why he loved to rhyme
From Random House
He headed off to college
at the ripe age of 18
That’s where he started writing
at his school magazine
Then one day he was fired
He had no plain excuse
But he continued writing
He used the alias, simply “Seuss”
From Random House
Then off he went to Oxford
After graduation
That’s where he failed to meet
his dad’s soaring expectations
So he dropped out, then moved
Back home to the US
To begin to chase his dream
of becoming a cartoonist
From Random House
He started working here and there
a range of publications
Until he joined the army
as Commander, Animations!
His focus was on training films
Until the war ended
Then he moved to California
Where his legacy was cemented
From Random House
He wrote “And to Think That I Saw It
on Mulberry Street”
His first book as Dr. Seuss
Came to be complete
The journey wasn’t all that smooth
Rejected 27 times
He cut some words, made fewer lines
and tightened up his rhymes
From Random House
Then Suess, he was approached
By the director of a board
They needed something new, they said
The kids — they are so bored!
So he began to make a book
With not too many words
Less words, he figured, that might work
That’s what the kids preferred
From Random House
The book he made, it had a name
“The Cat in the Hat”
A blend of rhythms and cartoons
A different format
That same year, he dropped another
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”
From Random House
A story of an odd green man
who’s rude and too ambitious
Up next: “Green Eggs and Ham”
Then, “Horton Hears a Who!”
“One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish”
“If I Ran the Zoo”
He died in 1991
His books will last forever
Let’s honor Dr. Seuss, today
By reading one, however!
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