Hello all,
Today the topic is very simple. How about having fun in poetry
Sometimes I feel that humor in poetry is both the hardest and the easiest to read. When we are kids we are exposed to nursery rhymes, and later we might read limericks.
Still I think that humor in poetry sometimes makes it less important.
What do you think?
Is it acceptable to have fun and laugh in iambs?
Can you have fun in rhymes?
What is your favorite humorist poet, or poem?
Tell me, I’m here to serve you something sweet or bitter.
dVerse 
Hello all.. a little be late here… if you want to give me some fun poems just list them below
Good evening, Björn! Good evening dVerse poets!
I enjoy reading humorous poetry but find it hard to work with in my own poetry and I’m never sure how to pitch humour, seeing as we all laugh at different things.
I used to enjoy poetry by Spike Milligan and John Lennon, whose humour is completely off the wall; Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts make me giggle; I really like Benjamin Zephaniah; and I love Dorothy Parker’s biting wit.
I appreciate touches of hyperbole, irony, puns and word play in poetry. Parodies can be fun, too. However, I’m not keen on limericks.
I agree… and there is humor also in some very serious poems.
I like some of Shel Silverstein’s poetry too… But I often wonder how you do humor without being childish.
Yes, that’s something to avoid.
Dorothy Parker knew how, sly, understated, unexpected turns, not childish 🙂
I agree. Dorothy Parker is a good example for adult humor in poetry.
https://www.monologues.co.uk/Childrens_Favourites/Red_Riding_Hood.htm
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/there-are-holes-in-the-sky/
Well obviously I like humor and silliness in poetry. I tend to think most people could use a laugh because they probably already have enough to cry about or feel emotional about.
I know you do… and I sometimes wish I could write more funny poems… (but sometimes they turn funny anyway)
They can be the best ones, the ones that turn out funny without trying.
Personally, I’d never even attempt writing humour into a poem, but I love to read it in other’s writing. I still love anything written by Dr Seus, and I read his books to my grandchildren whenever possible.
I never grew up with Dr Seus… but we do have a similar poet called Lennart Hellsing who wrote some very funny poems… I used to love them.
One is never too old to discover Dr Seus. Try Green Eggs and Ham to start.
I really enjoy humor in poetry — it knocks at that classic image of dry, heavy, introspective and flowery poetry — it laughs at itself. I built a Poetry Pole outside my house and recently put this poem by Ted Kooser – Father. It starts out funny (almost insensitive – my favorite) and then drifts to sweet.
Oh, yes, and I have rarely seen a humorous poem which is non-accessible. That is another good trait. They are clear to understand and not obtuse or allusive.
Well I think that there can be humor in total nonsense too… Like Lewis Carol
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42916/jabberwocky
Ah, but this is a very different sort of “nonsense”, as I am sure you know. LOL
🙂
That’s true, Sabio.
I really like that poem… and there is nothing wrong about mixing humor with the sweet or sorrowful.
A personal favorite of mine is Shakespeare’s sonnet 130… which is funny (or offensive) until the volta.
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/130.html
One of my favourites, too.
Oh my goodness. Looooooved that one. I will put in out on my Poetry Pole this week. Thank you !
Check out the reading by Alan Rickman… it’s one the best readings ever… how he pronounces reek is excellent.
Sabio, you know we need to see a photo of your poetry pole (with poetry on it!)
When it comes to poetry and verse –
Being ever serious is definitely worse –
Than sharing with glee –
That which brings a slap on the knee –
As being too highbrow is often a curse.
I thought I’d give you a rhyme
but there just isn’t time
So here is my chuckle and cheer
and I’ll pour you a beer.
The greatest English poet of all time, Billy Shakespeare, was just hilarious a lot of the time. Also Dorothy Parker, and many others. Poetry is about all of human experience, I say yuck it up sometimes 😂
One of the funniest poems of all time is Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 I think
Yes, and it is twice the poem that Sonnet 65 purports to be… 🤔
Humor definitely has a place in poetry. Every once in a while, one of the dVerse gang will just have fun, a lark, with a poem; smiles and giggles are acceptable. Nonsense or Flarf poems are fun for me. Humor, usually for me, in my work, takes the form of sarcasm, the darker side of comedic endeavors. Silly or slapstick material is harder for me to appreciate. I gravitate toward farce, clever, quick, and frantic. Comics say,”Life is easy, comedy is hard.”
I agree with you Glenn. To me there is a sense that poetry for grownups has to have humor for grownups… but that almost always means it could hurt a bit too.
Hush, hush, whisper who dares,
Little boy sits at the top of the stair
blood on his hands, fur on the mat
Christopher Robin’s castrated the cat.
Not mine, but it makes me laugh.
Me too… but I really feel a bit ashamed laughing at the horror of it all…
There are some very funny pastiches of Christopher Robin. He’s a gift.
I am ashamed to laugh with you both
Why ashamed?
Laughing at torturing an animal? Come on, I am horrible for laughing. LOL (oooops)
Christopher Robin has been dead for yonks and the cat wsn’t real, so I think we’re allowed to laugh 🙂
Oh bother! That would explain why there is no cat in the Hundred Acre Wood. Where Christopher Robin splays…🎶
I love the send ups of Christopher Robin and Pooh. I love the originals too. They can take a bit of rib tickling 🙂
To keep him from cold
hist mother was bold
& butchered the kittens
making him mittens
it seems the felines had it tough aoll the way round in that house.
Here is a great Parker that is witty, sidelong, dark, and funny.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44835/resume-56d2241505225
I loved it, but there is something quite offensive too… which makes it even more funny.
Zactly
That is a good poem of hers. One of my favorites.
Lol, black humour, Jane. I’ve written a few humorous pieces, and I’d like to do more. A nice twist for readers I think.
Maybe it’s time to pour some more fun into poetry …. 🙂
I’m for that. We should make it a prompt.
Send ups are often funny. I don’t much care for funny poetry. It doesn’t make me laugh, not like a good dirty limerick 🙂
Sometimes the humour can be in an unexpected ending – and that’s always good.
And clever unexpected rhymes.
Exactly!
A fun topic, Bjorn. I spent many hours with grandchildren reading aloud Dr Seuss and Shel Silverstein. I wonder if the reading aloud adds to the silliness? The rhymes, fun sounds, maybe using “voices.”
I recently wrote Perchance to Sleep for dVerse —- about trying to sleep with someone who snores. I think we also did fractured fairy tales once?
I do think it is sometimes refreshing to come upon a poem that makes me smile 😊
I think the sound has a lot to do with it… it’s definitely funnier if written in rhymes, and the anapest rhythm makes it silly…
I remember a long time we wrote children’s rhymes at dVerse… quite refreshing.
Hmmmmmm….a future prompt? I’ll think about that😊
I would love that again… I have tried to find it…. it might have been Victoria who hosted…
I will go to bed…. keep up the talk, and maybe we can see some humor in our poems later… I feel inspired myself.
Thanks for hosting Bjorn. Have a good night.
Obviously, I love humor in poetry, whether biting satire, or just plain silly. I cannot think of humor in poetry without giving an a
Example from the great Ogden Nash:
The People Upstairs
The people upstairs all practice ballet
They’re living room is a bowling alley.
Their bedroom is full of conducted tours.
Their radio is louder than yours.
They celebrate weekends all the week,
when they take a shower, your ceilings leak.
They try to get their parties to mix
By supplying their guests with Pogo sticks,
And when their orgy at last abates,
They go to the bathroom on roller skates.
I might love the people upstairs wondrous
If instead of above us, they just lived under us.
If all the people who lived upstairs would only live downstairs the world would be a better place.
This is hilarious!
Gotta love Ogden!
That’s very funny, poor buggers.
A boy stood on the burning deck
His lip was all aquiver
He gave a cough
His leg fell off
And floated down the river.
The poor boy.
And for those who like limericks, this isn’t too dirty…
A vice both obscene and unsavoury
kept the Mayor of Southampton in slavery
with bloodcurdling howls
he’d deflower young owls
that he kept in an underground aviary.
Lol! Who was doing the howling here?
I shudder to think 🙂
lol!!
Yikes!
Ha … this put a new dimension to howling
The theatre of the absurd, in comic form 🙂
I love reading funny and humorous poems. I am not good at it but I can appreciate a subtle and fun poem.
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY – (a husband’s point of view)………………By Pam Ayres
The missus bought a Paperback,
Down Shepton Mallet way,
I had a look inside her bag;
… T’was “Fifty Shades of Grey”.
Well I just left her to it,
And at ten I went to bed.
An hour later she appeared;
The sight filled me with dread…
In her left she held a rope;
And in her right a whip!
She threw them down upon the floor,
And then began to strip.
Well fifty years or so ago;
I might have had a peek;
But Mabel hasn’t weathered well;
She’s eighty four next week!!
Watching Mabel bump and grind;
Could not have been much grimmer.
And things then went from bad to worse;
She toppled off her Zimmer!
She struggled back upon her feet;
A couple minutes later;
She put her teeth back in and said
I am a dominater !!
Now if you knew our Mabel,
You’d see just why I spluttered,
I’d spent two months in traction
For the last complaint I’d uttered.
She stood there nude and naked
Bent forward just a bit
I went to hold her, sensual like
And stood on her left tit!
Mabel screamed, her teeth shot out;
My god what had I done!?
She moaned and groaned then shouted out:
“Step on the other one”!!
Well readers, I can’t tell no more;
About what occurred that day.
Suffice to say my jet black hair,
Turned fifty shades of grey!
The fun in this is the inevitability of the rhythm and the funny rhymes. This is unpretentious larks!
Indeed…cracks me up every time ! 🙂
Great British humour 🙂
Oh yes, I recently found her on you tube and I have listened to many of her poems. I love her!
That is a good one, Vivian. Not only is it funny, it saves me from having to read the original book.
That’s pretty funny… cringy as heck, but funny too.
Hilarious…oh my goodness…
This is hilarious!
Oh Vivian! That made my night.
That is a hoot Vivian! 😂
Here’s a poem that has always struck me as having the right amount of humor: (from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kew)
I am His Highness’ dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
Epigram, engraved on the Collar of a Dog which I gave to his Royal Highness (Frederick, Prince of Wales), 1736[114] (Alexander Pope, 1688–1744)
I think humour is really hard to do in poetry. It’s pretty hard to do in prose. There’s a lot of pretty lumpen “humorous” verse out there. I am partial to a bit of Hillaire Belloc, though – his Cautionary Tales for Children always make me smile. It’s the crescendo of events, and then the rapid deflation at the end. Have a look at George and his dangerous toy: http://holyjoe.org/poetry/belloc3.htm
I think it’s easy to underestimate the skill required to write something really funny. In fact, you shouldn’t see the skill at all, or it detracts from the humour.
Humor in poetry is so much fun When I taught fourth grade reading, we enjoyed poems such as: The Yak, The Pig, and The Ocelot. One year we acted out the Shel Silverstein’s poem: The Smokin’ Yoka Doka! The children loved them all!
I don’t know many but always enjoyed Shel Silverstein, and most recently, who I discovered on this site, Robbie Yates. Sometimes you need to laugh and just be inane. Life is serious enough. A merry heart you know? I would love to write humorously, but so far it hasn’t emerged.
I posted a poetic smile on my blog this evening… Pain …The Thrill of the Needle and Drill.
Great conversation. I appreciate humor in poetry and writing in general but I don’t think I very good at it. I will check out some of the suggestions made here. I love to laugh and appreciate this topic.
Hi Bjorn and All. Was here earlier then wandered off. Humorous poetry (like 50 Shades above) is wonderful to laugh to while reading. No favorites aside from Dr. Seuss but Shakespeare often used sly wit which is fun. “All’s Well that Ends Well” is a comedy of errors and so full of such. I’ve written a few that were more political commentary and so a little dry, but still funny.
Here is one by Billy Collins. But some people take themselves far too seriously, and I found this offended two neighbors when I put it out on my poetry pole. See what you think:
Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep A Gun In The House (by Billy Collins)
The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.
The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,
and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.
When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton
while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.
Please tell me they don’t have a dog like this. If they do, I dare you to cross out “keep” and post it on their door.
“Remember when you went away and I got on my knees and asked you not to go because I’d go berserk? ” I know it’s a song, but humorously poetic. I was video’d once long ago reciting the whole thing.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 is a wonderful example of humour. But then you get to the 20th century and the English poet Pam Ayres specialised in humour.
I like humour in poetry as long as the humour is imaginative, and integral to the poem. Here’s an except from ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll. It makes me laugh.
“You are old “said the youth, ” and your jaws are too weak for anything stronger than suet: yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak – pray how did you manage to do it?”
“In my youth” said his father, ” I took to the law and argued each case with my wife; And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw has lasted the rest of my life.”
Ha… and yes Lewis Carroll is high on my list of funny poetry writer…
Yeah, him too!
I find a lot of my work swings the pendulum from serious to humorous easily. But I always tended to be a bit off the wall, so I’d say it comes naturally. I’ll hang with the usual crowd: Nash, Prelutsky, Silverstein and Seuss. The poetry of Lennon is as humorous as his lyrics are melodious.
I think humor in poetry is important as children these days might not find any pull towards the art otherwise. My love for writing arose by following the attraction towards something fun like Shel Silverstein and then discovering the potential for power inside words when reading Emily Dickinson. I think for some they might only love one end of the spectrum, for me I love simply both ends and everything that comes in between. Words evoke freedom in all forms.
A very important point… humour is such an important part of making poetry more accessible…
this is the closest i came to a humorous poem. but i take humor very seriously.
My heart is brave, I am convinced
It just remains to be revealed
Underneath my housekeeping.
This ordinary mundane life
Leaves little chance to unmask
My inner warrior, my inner Joan of Arc.
Not a bad for of humor I think… and I do like the thought of humor being taken seriously
Ogden Nash–wordplay–making up words to fit the rhymes. The baby; a bit of talcum is always walcum.
I am jumping into this late anyone else mention?
Hello – made up words are always fun
I would like to read one such poem of yours where a good sense of humour is prevalent. Do read my article on Having a good sense of humour. https://thoughtsoftharun.wordpress.com/2019/07/01/having-a-good-sense-of-humor/