The effect of Busch's illustrations is enhanced by his forthright verse, with taunts, derision, ironic twists, exaggeration, ambiguity, and startling rhymes. His language had an influence on the humorous poetry of Erich Kästner, Kurt Tucholsky, Joachim Ringelnatz, and Christian Morgenstern. The contrast in his later work between comic illustration and its seemingly serious accompanying text – already demonstrated in his earlier "Max and Moritz" – is shown in Widow Bolte's mawkish dignity, which is disproportionate to the loss of her chickens: