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Light poetry, also called light verse, is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Poems considered "light" are usually brief, and can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature wordplay, including puns, adventurous rhyme and heavy alliteration. Typically, light verse in English is formal verse, although a few free verse poets, such as Billy Collins, have excelled at light verse outside the formal verse tradition.
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, have also excelled at light verse.
In English, poets who are well known for their light poetry include:
- Ben Jonson
- many of the Cavalier poets
- Jonathan Swift
- Alexander Pope
- Lord Byron
- Henry Austin Dobson
- Edward Lear
- W. S. Gilbert
- Ogden Nash
- Dorothy Parker
- Phyllis McGinley
- Willard R. Espy
- Shel Silverstein
- X. J. Kennedy
- Wendy Cope
- Jim Hayes
- A. M. Juster
- R. S. Gwynn
- Gail White
See also
- Clerihew
- Double dactyl
- Epigram
- Limerick
- McWhirtle
- Nonsense verse
- Michael Braude Award for Light Verse
External links
- Light Verse Resource Center *
- Light Quarterly *
- asinine poetry
- Love is All Box and No Cornflakes
- Funny Poets
- The Epic of Marmarad
"Light poetry"