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 , adventurous rhyme, and heavy alliteration. Nonsense poetry is often considered light verse, as well as some poems that employ parody or satire. Typically, light verse in English is formal verse, although a few free verse poets 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, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and Auden, also excelled at light verse.
History
19th Century
Lord Byron poem
Beppo is an early and notable instance of light poetry in the 19th century, though other writers like Winthrop Mackworth Praed, Frederick Locker-Lampson, C. S. Calverley, and Austin Dobson were also influential in the
Regency era and
Victorian era eras of the genre.
The limerick is perhaps the most recognizable form of comic or light poetry, with
Edward Lear's
The Book of Nonsense being a popular and influential example.
Notable poets
English
German
Dutch
Publications
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Seaver, Robert (1908), Ye butcher, ye baker, ye candlestick-maker Houghton Mifflin Company. Being sundry amusing and instructive verses for both old and young, adorned with numerous woodcuts
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Auden, W. H. (originally published in 1938), The Oxford Book of Light Verse, a seminal light verse anthology. Part of the Oxford Books of Verse series.
The following periodicals regularly publish light verse:
See also