Now, let's take a closer look at the various forms of poetic epigrams: The last poem above is not a limerick, but it illustrates that poems with sexual themes have been around for a long time:Asclepiades was an ancient Greek poet who lived circa 129-40 BC.As one critic put it, the limerick "is the vehicle of cultivated, unrepressed sexual humor in the English language." But while some experts claim that the only "real" limerick is an obscene or bawdy one, the form really took off initially, in terms of popularity, as a vehicle for nonsense verse and children's poems, such as the Mother Goose nursery rhymes: Anonymous (I also touched this one up slightly) Made the bishop of Chichester's breeches stir. Made all the pale saints in their niches stir. Anonymous (I touched this one up slightly) If we give credit to Lear for popularizing the form, shouldn't we give even more credit to Nash for perfecting it? In any case, moving on, some of the best limericks are "naughty" poems written by the greatest of all poets, Anonymous:Ĭrying, "Gee, Dick, you're right up my alley!" There are more poems by Nash elsewhere on this page. He throws open his nest with prodigality, She replied, "When Ah itchez, Ah scratchez." cummings is to sonnets.) Here are a few of Nash's best limericks and limerick-like poems: Nash's poems tend to be funny, irreverent, whimsical and "loosey-goosy." (Nash is to limericks as e. One thing Nash did wonderfully well was ignore the "rules" that often result in stiffly corseted formal poems. Ogden Nash holds a similar place of distinction in the pantheon of limerick writers. The limerick above reminds me of something Dorothy Parker once said about Oscar Wilde: that when she read an especially good epigram, she always assumed Wilde was the author. Dixon Lanier Merritt (often incorrectly ascribed to Ogden Nash)
Though I’m damned if I know how the helican! Here's another of my all-time favorites, which illustrates how punning wordplay can spice up limericks: attributed to Edward Lear and William Cosmo Monkhouse To be frank, I believe other poets, particularly Ogden Nash, have penned better limericks, but I do admire this one, which has been attributed to Lear: The respectable angels just haven’t his zing.Įdward Lear has been called the "father" and the "poet laureate" of the limerick because he helped popularize the form. I’ve got a school-girlish thing for Hell’s King,
#OGDEN NASH QUIP SKIN#
His naked red skin like a shimmering garnet. There’s something about all that Evil Incarnate, That arrow-tipped tail of his has such panache it That little mustache, the seductive goatee. It’s wrong, but those horns just do something to me, Here's a very rare form this is one of the best humorous villanelles (or near villanelles), written by a contemporary poet: Here are some the best rhyming epigrams in the English language, penned by poets who were masters of both the language and humor: Poets aren't very usefulīecause they aren't consumeful or produceful.Īnd I'll forgive the great big one on me. I find it interesting that one of the best revelations of the weirdness and zaniness of relativity can be found in a limerick! The limerick above inspired me to pen a rejoinder: One of the most common and popular forms of doggerel is the limerick. Eliot (from the book of poems that inspired the Broadway musical "Cats"), "There was a young lady of Niger" by Edward Lear (possibly) Honorable Mention: "You Are Old, Father William" by Lewis Carroll, "The Health-Food Diner" by Maya Angelou,"Macvity the Mystery Cat" by T. "A wonderful bird is the pelican" by Dixon Lanier Merritt "The Hippopotamus" and "The Vulture" by Hilaire Belloc "Men Seldom Make Passes" by Dorothy Parker The "Cuckoo" Song by William Shakespeare (from the play Love's Labor Lost) "To a Mouse" and "To a Louse" by Robert Burns "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod"by Eugene Field "The Walrus and The Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" by Edward Lear While the sage(who has to duck his head whenever the moon glows) The imbecileconstructs cages for everyone he knows, Humorous verse can be merely for the sake of fun, but it can also be wise and enlightening. I have worked with the interests of students young and old in mind, so if you want to learn more about light verse, and read the exemplars, hopefully you have found the right "launching pad." cummings, Hillaire Belloc, Robert Frost and T. The best humorous poets include Ogden Nash, Dorothy Parker, Edward Lear, Eugene Field, e.
#OGDEN NASH QUIP FREE#
Types of light verse include limericks, doggerel, nonsense verse, nursery rhymes, rhyming epigrams, free verse epigrams, humorous sonnets and humorous villanelles. This page contains some of the greatest humorous poems, or "light verse," ever written in the English language.
0 kommentar(er)
