Writing Fun Poems

Sometimes it’s a necessity as a writer to change your shorts. 

Writing fun poems (long or short) presents one particular genre that can cleanse palettes often desensitized to the sweet prospects of joy in humor. They can be a welcome change of pace! 

A few poetic forms work quite well for tickling the old funny bone. Click on the term to learn the particulars about them!

Edward Lear made the limerick popular in his “Book Of Nonsense”, published in 1846. It’s a short five line poem with a most musical rhyme flow. Consider this gem:

There was an old man on a hill,

Who seldom, if ever stood still;

He ran up and down 

In his grandmothers gown 

Which adorned that old man on the hill.

Not exactly a knee slapper I know… but it WAS 1846! Limericks take all forms, including those of the vulgar varieties about men from Nantucket and other such doggerel.

Another short short would be a monostitch, which could be a line verse in a larger poem, or simply a one line poem. Something like “Literary gnomes make their homes in a poem”… okay, this may be a monostich that does not exactly leave you in stitches, but you get the point.

A kenning can be a blast to use… it is a two word per line poem that describes something without ever saying what it’s describing… a short funny kenning for a child would be something like: 

ankle biter

lamp smasher

bug thief

crazy maker

heart warmer

A clerihew is a quick four line poem created by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956)  who was so bored in his chemistry class he scribbled this out about Sir Humphrey Davy (inventor of sodium):

Sir Humphrey Davy

Detested gravy.

He lived in the odium

Of having discovered sodium.

A clerihew’s first two lines rhyme, the last two lines rhyme, and the first line starts with a name. Simple… but most effective for a fast funny!

Consider this one by Invisible Poet Lorna McLaren:

Boris Johnson

sang his own swansong

stammering while addressing the nation afflicted with verbal constipation

Or this one by Invisible Poet Ally Smith:

E.T.

Alien to me

Trying hard to contact home

But couldn’t find a telephone 

Of course you can write anything in free verse using metaphors and funny wordplay. The “anything goes” format of free verse is perfect for the silly, absurd, or just straight out funny truth. I once wrote a love poem called “The Love Wrestler” which compared a professional wrestler to my girlfriend. It had lunatic lines like  “headlock on my heart” and “let down in another town with an imaginary name on my pants”.

These are not the ONLY fun forms to write with, but they are a great place to start. That and a clean pair of shorts. 

Matt Elmore

Image by: Unsplash

#poetry, #writing, #funpoems

Poetic devices 6: End rhymes

What was the first poem you ever read? Bet you can't remember. Neither can I. Chances are it would have included end rhymes. Nursery rhymes are for children and this is usually their first exposure. It will probably have included the simplest end rhyme scheme like this:

Baa baa black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir
Three bags full

Or maybe something a little more complex like an AABAAB end rhyme scheme:

Jack and Jill
went up the hill
to fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down
and broke his crown
and Jill came tumbling after

The Cow Jumped Over the Moon, Jack Spratt and several other well-known nursery rhymes feature the exact same format.

The end rhyme adds to the attraction of the verse, and helps us all to remember the story. Plenty of adult poetry is also composed of end rhymes, sometimes in a more complicated pattern such as a Villanelle, Limerick or Sonnet. And yet, when people first start out writing poetry for themselves, they usually default to ABAB rhyme schemes, often in the shape of a 4 line quatrain. 

There's nothing wrong with this of course. We all have to learn somehow. But it's no co-incidence that Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT also default to this same format when asked to write a poem. It's a telltale sign if you are trying to detect poetry generated by AI. 

Tyger, Tyger by the English poet William Blake is a classic example of an AABB end rhyme quatrain:

Tyger, Tyger burning bright
in the forests of the night;
what immortal hand or eye,
could frame thy fearful symmetry?

It's simple but incredibly effective in setting the scene for an atmospheric poem full of imagery. 

But here's a caveat - although end rhyme poetry is something just about every poet gravitates toward, it can also be a trap. Poets can spend hours agonising over how they are going to get their poetry to rhyme. Some end up sacrificing meaning and credibility by coming up with trite and banal end rhymes that detract from the beauty of the poem. 

You know what I'm talking about. It's a trap best avoided. If you are writing poetry with end rhymes, do make sure that the poem doesn't lose its sense or purpose because of a silly little end rhyme that matches sonically, but actually damages your poetry. 

Steve Wheeler

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Other posts in the Poetic Devices Series:

1. Simile

2. Metaphor

3. Repetition and refrains

4. Alliteration

5. Assonance