Light poetry or light verse is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Light poems are usually brief, can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play including puns , adventurous rhyme, and heavy alliteration . Typically, light verse in English is formal verse, although a few free verse poets have excelled at light verse outside the formal verse tradition.
4-481: While light poetry is sometimes condemned as doggerel or thought of as poetry composed casually, humor often makes a serious point in a subtle or subversive way. Many of the most renowned "serious" poets, such as Horace , Swift , Pope , and Auden , also excelled at light verse. The following periodicals regularly publish light verse: This poetry -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Doggerel Doggerel , or doggrel,
8-507: Is poetry that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme , often deliberately for burlesque or comic effect. Alternatively, it can mean verse which has a monotonous rhythm, easy rhyme, and cheap or trivial meaning. The word is derived from the Middle English dogerel , probably a derivative of dog . In English, it has been used as an adjective since the 14th century and a noun since at least 1630. Appearing since ancient times in
12-406: 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. Hip hop lyrics have also explored the artful possibilities of doggerel. Chaucer 's Tale of Sir Thopas
16-426: The literatures of many cultures, doggerel is characteristic of nursery rhymes and children's song . The Scottish poet William McGonagall (1825–1902) has become famous for his doggerel, which many remember with affection despite its seeming technical flaws, as in his poem " The Tay Bridge Disaster ": Oh! Ill-fated bridge of the silv'ry Tay, I now must conclude my lay By telling the world fearlessly without
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