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The Butter Battle Book Writing Style

The Butter Battle Book Writing Style

Dr. Seuss might be writing for kids, but he knows a thing or two about meter. The majority of The Butter Battle Book is in anapestic dimeter and tetrameter. That's just fancy talk for this (dimeter):

But we Yooks, as you know / when we breakfast or sup (19-20)

and this (tetrameter):

when my broken-off switch, with my head hung in shame
to the Chief Yookeroo in great sorrow I came
(44-5).

Feel it gallop right along: dadaDUM dadaDUM dadaDUM. The anapest is one of Dr. Seuss's favorite feet. The lighthearted meter keeps things moving along, maybe so we don't stop short when we realize that he's going on about super deadly weapons. Yowza.