M. Bryant, AML 4242 (Spring 2014)
Parody Assignment
DUE: Tuesday, April 22 in class (hard copies only; no Sakai submission)
LENGTH: roughly ½ to 1 single-spaced page
What Is a Parody?
Basically, a parody is a humorous tribute to a literary work that shows your familiarity with its
style. It is an intimate form of analysis that exaggerates or twists a poet's technique, recurring
images & themes, and other mannerisms. Your parody need not copy the literary form of the
original. (That is, you need not write a sonnet if you're parodying a Frost or Brooks sonnet, or
write a long poem if you're parodying Tender Buttons, The Waste Land, Montage of a Dream
Deferred, or Howl.). If you choose a long poem, you could distill it or parody a key section (or
sections). However you approach the assignment, your classmates should be able to recognize
who you're "doing."
Ideas for Writing Parodies
 Reverse the situation. What if Stein hated Picasso and the other Cubists? What if
Brooks had written "Luxury Condo Building?" What if Ginsberg wrote a suburban Howl?
What if the couple’s crisis in Frost’s “Home Burial” was parenting a brat?

Change the speaker. Try making the addressee the speaker; for example, what might
Elsie have to say to Dr. Williams, or “Daddy” have to say to Plath's daughter figure, or
Emily Dickinson (or the barking dog) have to say to Billy Collins? What about Alice B's
perspective on Stein's domestic bliss? What would Hughes’s blues performer or Brooks’s
Satin-Legs Smith say to his onlookers? What would “the women” say about J. Alfred
Prufrock?

Update the context. How might Eliot, Ginsberg or Plath represent a popular mythic
figure like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, JFK, Madonna, or a Disney Princess? What if
Williams taught at UF Med School, or Brooks wrote “UF Student Apartment,” or Hughes
wrote “Montage of a Degree Deferred”?

Change poets. What if Plath voiced one of Frost's dramatic narratives about marriage, or
Frost rewrote a section of The Waste Land? What if Stein wrote a domestic Howl, or
Collins wrote a suburban version of J. Alfred Prufrock’s love song?

Write a composite parody. Create your personal blend of 2 or more poets, or try an Epic
Rap Battle. I’ve even had parodies of the syllabus that take each poet in turn.

Retell a famous story. What if one of our poets retold a nursery story like The Three
Little Pigs or Goldilocks, or tried a hand at Dr. Seuss or Mother Goose? Or a mythic tale
such as the creation of the world (Genesis), Adam and Eve, or the Pilgrims’ first
Thanksgiving? What if Brooks set Cinderella in Bronzeville, or Ginsberg wrote a Beat
Jack and the Beanstalk?