A major characteristic of light verse is the use of regular rhyme and rhythm, although the pattern may be broken or exaggerated in places for emphasis or humorous effect. This is true of "Reactionary Essay on Applied Science." The verses are sextets, which means they contain six lines each. This pattern is altered by the use of conversational lines between the stanzas. These are not lines of verse. Instead McGinley adopts a casual tone which sounds as if she is interrupting the poem in order to address the reader personally. Part of the humor in the poem comes from the contrast between these two styles. The final stanza also varies the pattern since it runs nine lines long.

The verses are written in iambic tetrameter. Iambic means that the lines are broken into two syllable units; the first syllable is unstressed, the second stressed. Tetrameter indicates that each...