Light Verse Ingredients

By

Mona Hodgson

 

Humorous or light verse is lively and brings at least a smile. Sometimes it's good for a full-bellied guffaw. Since much of life favors the somber, I can't think of anybody who can't use a laugh. Humorous verse is not reserved just for children. You may have the ability to lighten somebody's load, at least for a moment.

 

Could you be a light verse poet? Read on, let's find out.      

 

If light verse is to be effective it needs to have universal appeal. In other words, it needs to address topics that readers are familiar with—everyday things and experiences. 

 

Simply put, light verse is a slice of life from around the house, the job, the classroom... anywhere. Humorous verse might invite the reader to chuckle with the subjects of parenting, food, childhood, dieting, marriage, homework, supermarkets, shopping, finances, computers, pets, sports, writing, airplane travel, neighbors, vacations, holidays, bedtimes, hobbies, housework, television—just to name a few.

 

A favorite length for light verse is 4 lines, but 2-12 lines are also well received. Four to eight lines with a heavy-handed beat with strong end-line rhymes work best for most.

 

Here's an example in my poem Watchbox, first printed in the Cross & Quill, May l990.

 

The flag on my mailbox

  is still standing up.

Will it ever get here -

  That little mailtruck?

Wait a minute!

  There's no mail today.

I forgot -

  It's a holiday! MH                                                      

  

There are exceptions, however, in length and meter usage. You'll note many exceptions in the works of Jack Prelutsky and Calvin Miller, two of my favorite poetic humorists.

 

How does one make a poem funny? Here are several entertaining exercises that should be standard in any humorist's repertoire.

 

Ask serious questions about a silly idea. This is Jack Prelutsky's favorite technique. He contends that you can make almost anything funny by starting with an utterly senseless premise and asking common sense questions about it. Have you ever read his poem, Ballad of a Boneless Chicken from his book, The New Kid on the Block?

 

In this poem he tells the story of being in a supermarket buying some boneless chicken breasts for dinner when he started wondering, "What about the rest of the chicken?  Was that boneless, too? And if so, where did it live, what did it do, and what did the other chickens think of it?"  When he finished answering his "serious" questions, he wrote Ballad of a Boneless Chicken. 

 

Play with words.  Calvin Miller loves to play with words.  His poem, If There Were No "B's", from his book When The Aardvark Parked on the Ark is a great example. He starts the poem with "If there were no `B's,' it sure would be sad. We'd have to ride "ikes" and sleep in our "eds."

 

Get punny. Jack Prelutsky built his poem I Wave Good‑Bye When Butter Flies, from his book Something Big Has Been Here entirely on puns. In the poem he cheers a boxing match, sews a cabbage patch, dances at a basket ball, and leads a rubber band.

 

Try a touch of irony.  My poem Nightmare, first printed in The Christian Communicator, April 1993, uses irony and is also an exception to the "4-8 lines with heavy-handed rhyme rule".

 

   NIGHTMARE

 

I lie in the darkness,

  fear shrinking,

  wakefulness growing.

The nightmare -

  I'm late for a deadline,

  my manuscript is missing.

 

Where does it come from -

  unreasonable panic?

  It doesn't matter!

Morning will soon peek in -

I'll be my sensible self again

A person who hour after hour

shuts herself in a room

to daydream, doodle,

explore, and compose. MH

 

Slip in a surprise ending. While Jack was writing Ballad of a Boneless Chicken one last question occurred to him: "Exactly what sort of egg does a boneless chicken lay?" The answer provided him with a surprising, yet somehow logical conclusion.

 

Exaggerate. Again, I point you to the work of Calvin Miller, Jack Prelutsky, Dr. Seuss and others who write humorous verse. You'll find much use of exaggeration.

 

Other methods for creating humorous verse might include using simple observation, contrast, a breath of fantasy, a tongue-in-cheek approach, making something extraordinary out of the ordinary, or focusing on incongruities. Don't forget, you can combine techniques.

 

Many newspaper and magazine editors use light verse  to fill empty spaces and to break up full pages of monotonous print. Some editors publish entire pages of light verse, quips, and jokes on a regular basis.

 

What are you waiting for? Go ahead  Play with words. And research the light verse markets.