Humorous poetry??

[bylinebree]

I enjoy the funny stuff as well as the serious. Since I'm new here, can anyone point me to posts in this vein? I'd like to offer some of the ones I've written...um, maybe.

Who do you think is a good published humorist-poet? (is that the term?)

From my kids' elementary days, I know there's always Shel Silverstein, and I cut my teeth on ChildCraft books (boy, does this date me!) --- but what others do you guys like, as adults?

[Ken]

Seven Lady Godivas: The True Facts Concerning History's Barest Family by Dr. Seuss

www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394562690/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top/002-4597091-1242417

[JRH]

Hi Bree,

Shel Silverstein wrote many quality humorous poems both for children and adults, as well as humorous songs such as "The Unicorn", "A Boy Named Sue", sung by Johnny Cash, "Put Another Log On The Fire" and "The Cover of The Rolling Stone"

Dr. Suess was of course famous for his Children's stories, (most of which were humorus or nonsensical.

Robert Service, Ogden Nash, and G.K Chesterton wrote much short humorus verse.

Edward Lear popularized the Limerick and many famous poets like T.S. Eliot, Edward Arlington Robinson, and e e cummings wrote many poems with a humorous twist.

On a more contemporary note, you might try this site: http://www.tech-sol.net/humor/poetry.htm or click on my icon and find the threads I've started on "Limericks", "More Epitaphs", "Shel Silvertein", "Assorted Humorus Poems", which can be found at http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35754 or individual poems of mine like "The Could Have Been Cowboy" and "The Curmudgeon", or you can run a search for humor or humorous threads on the Forum as a whole as the subject has been addressed here before.

Hope you find what you're looking for.

Jim Hoye, (JRH)

[Dichroic]

Dorothy Parker.
Millay had a few ironic ones in the same vein "I find this frenzy insufficient reason / For conversation when we meet again."

Jonathan Swift, because the line "...exclaiming, in his amorous fits, "Oh! Celia ... Celia ... Celia shits!" is forever branded on my brain. (Not an enviable condition.)

Judith Viorst had some very contemporary best-sellers in the 1970s (my mom had a bunch of them). And I'd heartily second the recommendation of Ogden Nash. You should be able to find all of these but Viorst online with no problems.

[JBI]

Try Ogden Nash.

[Norman D Gutter]

Bylline:

If I read your original post correctly, you also wanted to see some posts here, at AW, on humorous poetry (a.k.a. light verse). Here are two of mine I posted for critique.

Oxymoron No. 1 (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75607)

On The Virtues Of "Good" or "Fine" (http://http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75607)

Hopefully others will add some of theirs. I see Jim Hoye already has.

Best Regards,
NDG

[C.bronco]

http://www.ruthlessrhymes.com/little_willie_poems/little_willie_poems/
Harry Graham
His poems cracked me up when I was little.
Here's one:
Willie poisoned his father's tea;
Father died in agony.
Mother came, and looked quite vexed:
"Really, Will," she said, "what next?!"

Wow, I just read more, and some are pretty gruesome. I guess only the mildly gruesome ones were in the anthology I had in my youth.

[JRH]

I'll also recommend "Output" by Sir_Nigel in the "Critique" Forum at http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98953

Very Humorous.

JRH

[Elliot Cowan]

Dr. Suess was of course famous for his Children's stories, (most of which were humorous or nonsensical).

Although this is very, very true, there's a lot of subtext in many of Suess's books that's worth noting.
War.
Religion.
Environment.