Light poetry

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. Nonsense poetry is often considered light verse, as well as some poems that employ parody or satire.^[1] 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, Swift, Pope, and Auden, also excelled at light verse.

History

19th Century

Lord Byron's 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 and Victorian eras of the genre.^[2] 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.^[3]

Notable poets

English

German

Dutch

Publications

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
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.^[4]

The following periodicals regularly publish light verse:

Able Muse
Light (formerly Light Quarterly), a journal of light verse
The Spectator runs regular light verse competitions
The Washington Post runs regular light verse competitions as part of its Style Invitational

^ Amis, Kingsley, ed. (1992). The new Oxford book of light verse (Repr ed.). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Pr. ISBN 978-0-19-282075-4.
^ Biggs, Patrick (16 October 2023). Community, Form, Nostalgia: Light Verse in English from 1818 to 1978 (Thesis). Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington. doi:10.26686/wgtn.24312883. Retrieved 9 June 2025.
^ Greene, Roland; Cushman, Stephen; Cavanagh, Clare; Ramazani, Jahan; Rouzer, Paul F.; Feinsod, Harris; Marno, David; Slessarev, Alexandra, eds. (2012). The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics (4th ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13334-8.
^ Auden, W. H., ed. (1973). The Oxford book of light verse. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-881331-6.

[1] Amis, Kingsley, ed. (1992). The new Oxford book of light verse (Repr ed.). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Pr. ISBN 978-0-19-282075-4.

[2] Biggs, Patrick (16 October 2023). Community, Form, Nostalgia: Light Verse in English from 1818 to 1978 (Thesis). Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington. doi:10.26686/wgtn.24312883. Retrieved 9 June 2025.

[3] Greene, Roland; Cushman, Stephen; Cavanagh, Clare; Ramazani, Jahan; Rouzer, Paul F.; Feinsod, Harris; Marno, David; Slessarev, Alexandra, eds. (2012). The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics (4th ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13334-8.

[4] Auden, W. H., ed. (1973). The Oxford book of light verse. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-881331-6.

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