Poems with
Humor & Fun
Doggerel
Bad verse
Full of clichés
Clumsy-sounding
Irregular meter
These are funny, but unintentionally so – the
poet did not mean for it to be funny (Like old
horror films)
Called “giftedly bad”
“The Tay Bridge Disaster” by William McGonagall
It must have been an awful sight,
To witness in the dusky moonlight,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,
Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay,
Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay,
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.
Epigram
Pithy, witty poem
Satirical
Very short & quick poems
(Pithy: using few words in a clever way)
Examples:
by Coleridge
Sir, I admit your general rule,
That every poet is a fool,
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.
Candy
Is dandy,
But liquor
Is quicker
Oscar Wilde
“I can resist everything
except temptation. "
Limerick
Light verse
Usually anapestic lines (da da DUM
Rhyme is AABBA
Usually five lines
Bawdy, irreverent themes
A Young Lady of Lynn
There was a young lady of Lynn,
Who was so uncommonly thin
That when she essayed
To drink lemonade
She slipped through the straw and fell in.
There was an Old Man with a Beard
by Edward Lear
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared!—
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard.”
Parody
Comic imitation of another poem.
For example:
“We Old Dudes” by Joan Murray
A parody of “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn
Brooks
We real cool. We
Left school. We
We old dudes. We
White shoes. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Golf ball. We
Eat mall. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Soak teeth. We
Palm Beach; We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
Vote red. We
Soon dead.
Kenning & Neologism
Kenning: compound word
takes place of an ordinary noun
ocean: whale-path
blood: battle-sweat
sun: sky-candle
Neologism: a newly coined, invented word
“slithy” “gimble” “brillig” “chillax” “hinky”
“brainworm” “redonculous” etc.
Double Dactyl
The Double Dactyl consists of Two quatrains* (the Double
Dactyl has two stanzas)
Each quatrain is made up of three double-dactyl lines, then
the fourth line is a dactyl and a single stressed syllable.
Dactyl: DUM da da (like in the words poetry or basketball)
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM
DUM da da DUM
Underlined DUMs Rhyme!
The poems are silly – first line is usually nonsense, second line
is usually a proper name or person.
*Quatrain (Four-line stanza which rhymes)
DOUBLE DACTYL example:
Higgledy Piggledy,
Bacon, lord Chancellor.
Negligent, fell for the
Paltrier vice.
Bribery toppled him,
Bronchopneumonia
Finished him, testing some
Poultry on ice.
(Ian Lancashire)
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM
vice & ice rhyme!
DOUBLE DACTYL example:
Higgelvich Piggelvich
Anna Karenina
Russian romanticist
cracked under strain.
Impetuosity
caused her to tragically,
melodramatically
catch the next train.
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM da da
DUM da da DUM
strain & train rhyme