White Rabbit and I were talking the other day, after I had posted my “Revelation” post, about which writers of “light verse” are likely the most under-rated? It seems that every Thursday we drag out some relatively well known poet and talk about one of their poems or, on occasion someone goes out and finds poet that few of us ever heard about that they happen to like.

We have been talking for nearly the last week about “what is poetry” and “why do people write poetry ?”. Ted even got us into a discussion about whether we believe that poetry is a dying Art. Personally I think it is – at least for the public at-large. The number of people who actually read poetry has dropped by 50% in the last 16 years (according to the NEA). Today less than 9% of the adult population reads poetry anymore.

One of the poets which Rabbit and I both enjoy is Willard Espy. I suspect few here know Espy – for most of his poetry is not “serious” enough – a thought to which today’s poem speaks. And it also speaks, I think, to why the readership of poetry has declined so precipitously among the general public

Willard Richardson Espy, who died in 1999, was an American editor, philologist, writer, and poet. He is remembered as a wordsmith and memoirist, whose prolific career celebrated language, word play, light verse, and what Henry James once called the “visible past” - the events in the history of a time and place that can be recovered and preserved by the reach of a long memory and a gifted imagination. He is particularly remembered for his anthology of light verse and wordplay, “An Almanac of Words at Play”, and its two sequels.

Espy is also noted for “Words to rhyme with : for poets and songwriters” which includes a primer of prosody, a list of more than 80,000 words that rhyme, a glossary defining 9,000 of the more eccentric rhyming words, and a variety of exemplary verses, one of which does not rhyme at all. And it is from that tome that this poem is taken -

YOU'D BE A POET, BUT YOU HEAR IT'S TOUGH?

You'd be a poet, but you hear it's tough?
No problem. Just be strict about one rule:
No high-flown words, unless your aim is fluff;

The hard thought needs the naked syllable.
For giggles, gauds like pseudoantidis-
establishment fulfill the purpose well;
But when you go for guts, the big words miss;
Trade "pandemonic regions" in for "hell".

…Important poems? Oh…excuse the snort…
Sack scansion, then -- and grammar, sense and rhyme.
They only lie around to spoil the sport --
They're potholes on the road to the sublime.

And poets with important things to say
Don't write Important Poems anyway.

Copyright © 1986 Willard R. Espy

That poem has a serious message. It inspired me to write, not a parody, but a limerick with a similar theme.

Being Light-Hearted Is Serious Hard Work
by NoStar

You'd write poems, 'cept you think it's too hard
To write meaningful poems like the Bard
When big thoughts are expressed
Smaller words work the best
Here's a secret: the bard was a card

In his serious poems, Will would pun
And looking for them's half the fun
At his serious best
He would still pause to jest
That made Willie the Shake number one

some remarks on poetry - by Ted Burke

The end of verse.Again? - by Ted Burke

A Weekend Discussion - Poems, Poets and Purpose - by denny

A personal revelation - by denny

I am hoping that this OPP will inspire some people to have a little FUN with poetry today. I snet out a link the other day to some "silly poems" for everone to enjoy -

<LINK>

One of my favorites there was -

The Otter
by Ralph Lewin


A fitter fits;
A cutter cuts;
And an aircraft spotter spots;
A baby-sitter
Baby-sits --
But an otter never ots.

Though sinners sin and
Thinners thin
And paper-blotters blot
I've never yet
Had letters let
Or seen an otter ot

A batter bats
(Or scatters scats);
A potting shed's for potting;
But no one's found
A bounder bound
Or caught an otter otting.

TAP

d;-)

Hi Denny,

Nice discussion! Glad you picked this direction to go.

Espy's compilation of rhyming words etc. is currently in print as The Wordsworth Rhyming Dictionary, which I own. Perhaps this is the "previous edition" mentioned in the review you cite. Anyway, it is indeed a stunning tome.

wr ()()

Apparently the "previous edition" of the book you cite is still in print as The Wordsworth Rhyming Dictionary, which I own, and through which I first encountered Espy's poetry. The book is a splendid work on every level.

wr ()()

wr ()()

One suggested minor chage in Line #4 -

Being Light-Hearted Is Serious Hard Work
by NoStar

You'd write poems, 'cept you think it's too hard
To write meaningful poems like the Bard
When big thoughts are expressed
The Smaller words work best
Here's a secret: the bard was a card

In his serious poems, Will would pun
And looking for them's half the fun
At his serious best
He would still pause to jest
That made Willie the Shake number one

But then - we both know that i have a tin ear.

TAP

d;-)

Your suggestion would put the stress in the wrong place:

The smaller words work best

Now this would work:

The small words work the best

A Limerick to My Computer -
- unknown

Are there those in the land of the brave
Who can tell me how I should behave
When I am disgraced
Because I erased
A file I intended to save?

TAP

d;-)

As NoStar rightly says, Espy’s theme is a serious one. Good poems don’t use big words, don’t need rhyme or meter, don’t try to sound Important. My favorite line is

The hard thought needs the naked syllable.

And to illustrate that, here are five world-famous poems that use simple words. In other words, denny, easy-to-understand poems need not be light verse.

Robert Frost’s “Design”

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Seamus Heaney’s “Clearances”

<link>

W B Yeats’ “The Second Coming”

<link>

Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “God’s Grandeur”

<link>

Shakespeare’s Sonnet # 73

<link>

I invite all Fraysters to post their favorite easy-to-understand but serious poem.

The problem, for me, is that Espy's poem isn't fun. Excuse the snort, but it's hectoring, pedantic, and supercilious. I guess the third stanza is ironic, but the rest of the poem is not. That's a little sloppy. He's trying to shoehorn all his pet peeves in. The last couplet: is that a dig at William Cullen Bryant, or what? That last couplet is clever, but if you think about it, not really true. I got a problem with that.

Most certainly not, MaryAnn. And that's not what Espy was saying either. Clearly Espy's "YOU'D BE A POET, BUT YOU HEAR IT'S TOUGH?" is not light verse. And thaks for adding your 5 examples of "serious" poetry that avoids the"unreadability" that many object to in some modern poetry.

TAP

d;-)

Clearly Espy's "YOU'D BE A POET, BUT YOU HEAR IT'S TOUGH?" is not light verse.

That's not what you said in your toppost, denny.