Funny Poetry

 

What is your perception of poetry? Maybe to some people it is this stuffy closeted medium in which deep thinkers put together meaningful words in rigid styles. Maybe to some, this is off-putting…but wait a moment…

Poetry can take many forms, one of these forms can be the double combination of poetry and wit.

It takes a special talent. To melt the two together Wit can be used as a weapon to attack and mock the establishment, think of Oscar Wilde attacking the stuffy society in which he lived. Poetry can be funny but at the same time carry a serious message.

It can be used to take the sting out of a dark situation, obviously in the present moment we have the shadow of the Corona Virus. With the anthology “Together Behind Four Walls” which is still going through the process of being compiled, there are some very witty poems. Perhaps one of the skills of a funny poet, is to turn a mundane subject, into a funny subject. Neil Zetter subjects include clearing out a garden shed and social distancing and manages to whip up humour. Professor Elemental manages to find humour in “homes schooling” with his poem “The Difficulties of Homeschooling an Orangutan”

Poetry can be used as a way to make children laugh and entice them to enjoy reading. I must have read endless times the poems of Dr. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel. Accompanied by his wacky poems were equally creative illustrations. Some poets have the magical quality of creating a special unusual world for children to delve into.

Somebody who seemed to have a really great understanding of a child’s mind is Roald Dahl. His work encompassed darkness with humour, take his poem “The Three Little Pigs,” the poem feeds off two well known children’s stories Three little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. The poem ends up with Little Red Riding Hood being the villain of the piece, as she shoots the wolf and kills the pig so she can have a pig skin travelling case. Roald Dahl even reworks the story of Cinderella, giving it his treatment, making it sinister and dark.

Ogden Nash was an Americn humorist poet who was very prolific; writing over 500 poems. An example of his work is “The People upstairs” It starts off

The people upstairs all practise ballet
Their living room is a bowling alley
Their bedroom is full of conducted tours.
Their radio is louder than yours,

I don’t know about you, but I have experienced some annoying neighbours, while living in Paris, in an old apartment, on the one hand we had the noise from a jazz club, which was most pleasant, where as the sound of the neighbours was as annoying as a wasp at a picnic.

If you are feeling melancholic, go and search for some witty poetry, it might put a different complexion on the world.

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Interview with Oscar Wilde 2015

Interview with Oscar Wilde 2015
Having managed to resurrect Oscar Wilde, he kindly permitted an interview.

Interviewer : A lot of things have changed compared to the world you are more familiar with.

Oscar Wilde : They certainly have, the world has a lot of its charm and innocence. Many things have changed, some things for the better it is true. Homosexual marriage, I would never have anticipated that, in a million life times. In many parts of the world, cruelty abounds, people persecuted because of the way nature made them. People are forced to live in the shadows, hiding their true natures, like a flower that doesn’t have the possibility to fully bloom. People still have this wish to decimate all that is beautiful, like a malicious child crushing a beautiful butterfly in a tightly clenched fist.

Interviewer: What other changes have you noticed?

Oscar Wilde : The world seems to have got smaller, travel was the pastime of the rich, now many seem to take to the skies. The “drinking classes” have now joined the “traveling classes”. In the world I knew only the aristocracy and privileged few, would set foot out of the domains of their towns or villages.

Interviewer: what other things have you noticed about people?

Oscar: They seem to walk about with these devices, telephones I believe they are called, having inane conversations, for some reasons compelled to take pictures of themselves, an unhealthy appetite for self-love, but then as I said “To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.”

Interviewer: Which world do you prefer the world of your times or present times?
The pace of the world seems to have quickened. There seems to be parts of the world in which persecution still reigns. I would be happy to return to 34 Tite Street, but I understand the famous and celebrated have little peace, pursued like a fox by hounds, by journalists and television crews. Your privacy is owned by other people. The aristocracy seems to stoically exist, but all manners of new classes seem to have come into existence, all appallingly dressed, and doubtlessly poorly educated.

Interviewer: What about humor, have you noticed any changes?

Oscar: In my day words were chosen with care, subtlety and with wit. Many of the witty things I said have lived on, long after my “demise”. I used humor in the way that it is thought provoking. I have noticed the world of 2015, is characterized by course words, lacking in pleasantry. Banter does not seem to flow as it did in my times.

Interviewer: It’s been a great pleasure talking to you, Oscar.

Oscar: Dead or alive it is always such a pleasure to be the center of attention.

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