Editing Light poetry

{{Short description|Poetry that attempts to be humorous}}
{{Redirect|Light verse|the Quranic verse|Ayat an-Nur|the short story by Isaac Asimov|Light Verse (short story)}}
{{unreferenced|date=October 2018}}
'''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 [[pun]]s, 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.

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|Swift]], [[Alexander Pope|Pope]], and [[W. H. Auden|Auden]], also excelled at light verse.

==Notable poets==
===English===
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* [[Richard Armour]]
* [[Max Beerbohm]]
* [[Hilaire Belloc]]
* [[John Betjeman]]
* [[Morris Bishop]]
* [[Lord Byron]]
* [[C. S. Calverley]]
* [[Lewis Carroll]]
* [[Charles E. Carryl]]
* [[Brian P. Cleary]]
* [[William Rossa Cole]]
* [[Wendy Cope]]
* [[Noël Coward]]
* [[Alma Denny]]
* [[Henry Austin Dobson]]
* [[T. S. Eliot]] 
* [[Willard R. Espy]]
* [[Gavin Ewart]]
* [[Charles Ghigna]]
* [[W. S. Gilbert]]
* [[Arthur Guiterman]]
* [[A. P. Herbert]]
* [[Oliver Herford]]
* [[Thomas Hood]]
* [[Frank Jacobs]]
* [[X. J. Kennedy]]
* [[Joyce La Mers]]
* [[Edward Lear]]
* [[Dennis Lee (author)|Dennis Lee]]
* [[Newman Levy]]
* [[J. Patrick Lewis]]
* [[J. A. Lindon]]
* [[Don Marquis]]
* [[David McCord]]
* [[Phyllis McGinley]]
* [[David Morice]]
* [[Vladimir Nabokov]]
* [[Ogden Nash]]
* [[Dorothy Parker]]
* [[Alexander Pope]] 
* [[Maurice Sagoff]]
* [[Shel Silverstein]]
* [[James Kenneth Stephen]]
* [[Jonathan Swift]]
* [[John Updike]]
* [[John Whitworth (poet)|John Whitworth]]
* [[John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester|John Wilmot]] 
*[[Dr Seuss]]
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===German===
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*[[Wilhelm Busch]]
*[[Heinz Erhardt]]
*[[Robert Gernhardt]]
*[[Christian Morgenstern]]
*[[Joachim Ringelnatz]]
*[[Erich Kästner]]
*[[Eugen Roth]]
*[[Mascha Kaléko]]
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===Dutch===
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*[[Drs. P]]
*[[Kees Stip]]
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==Publications==
*  Seaver, Robert (1908), ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73649 Ye butcher, ye baker, ye candlestick-maker]'' Houghton Mifflin Company.&nbsp; Being sundry amusing and instructive verses for both old and young, adorned with numerous woodcuts

The following periodicals regularly publish light verse:
* ''[[Able Muse]]''
* ''[[Light (journal)|Light]]'' (formerly ''Light Quarterly''), a journal of light verse
* ''[[The Spectator]]'' runs regular [http://www.spectator.co.uk/life/competition/ light verse competitions]
* ''[[The Washington Post]]'' runs regular light verse competitions as part of its [[Style Invitational]]

==See also==
{{Portal|Poetry}}
* [[Alla barnen]]
* [[Clerihew]]
* [[Double dactyl]]
* [[Epigram]]
* [[Limerick (poetry)|Limerick]]
* [[McWhirtle]]
* [[Michael Braude Award for Light Verse]]
* [[Nonsense verse]]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Genres of poetry]]
[[Category:Comedy]]


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[[de:Komische Lyrik]]