Original artwork, not a still
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish ‧ 1960
My shoe is off. My foot is cold. I have a bird I liked to hold.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
It is Seuss's nonsense at its most compact: four short lines, two rhyming pairs and one oddly specific complaint about a cold foot. The speaker is a stranger who tells us everything about himself and nothing useful. For a child learning to read, every word is easy and the picture explains the rest, which is why these lines stick.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue FishShow the scene
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960), a Beginner Book by Dr. Seuss. These are lines spoken by a strange man in a blue hat who stands on a mat, with a bird on his hand and gold teeth. He introduces himself in rhyme: his hat is old, his teeth are gold, he has a bird he likes to hold, and one shoe is off so his foot is cold. Then he turns upside down and runs through the same facts in reverse, finishing with the announcement that his story is all told.
Sources (2)
- Dr. Seuss Wiki: Guy in an Old Hatwhole short articleReference checked
- Dr. Seuss Wiki: One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fishpage notes (pages 28-29) and the list of page imagesReference checked
Context reviewed
