A Century of Humorous Verse 1850-1950

by Roger Lancelyn Green

PRE-ISBN.An extract from the “… Any anthology must suffer to a greater or lesser extent from personal taste and prejudice, and a collection of humorous verse is particularly liable to be marked by the taste of its editor. Humour has a dimension beyond it is possible, for example, to acknowledge the fact that ‘The Wrong Box’ and ‘Three Men in a Boat’ are masterpieces of humour – but to be amused by one and bored by the other.In the ‘Century of Humorous verse from 1850 to 1950’ I have found the most amusement in the middle of the period, and least towards the end. This does not, however, come amiss, for the object of the present volume is to include representative works by the acknowledged masters of humorous verse (accompanied by a sprinkling of more personal choices) – and naturally few contemporary writers have yet qualified for the distinction we hand unhesitatingly to Lear, Lewis Carroll, W.S. Gilbert, or Calverley, though some are drawing near to the class in which such writers as Godley, Seaman, Quiller-Couch, and Belloc have already taken a permanent place …”

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Roger (Gilbert) Lancelyn Green was a British biographer and children's writer. He was an Oxford academic who formed part of the Inklings literary discussion group along with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Born in 1918 in Norwich, England, Green studied under C. S. Lewis at Merton College, Oxford, where he obtained a B.Litt. degree. He delivered the 1968 Andrew Lang lecture. Green lived in Cheshire, in a manor which his ancestors owned for over 900 years. He died in October 1987. His son was the writer Richard Lancelyn Green

Reviews

[^ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really very enjoyable selection from Thomas Love Peacock through to Patrick Barrington and RLG. The appendix of ‘The Masque of Bailliol’, Stray Verses, Rootless Rhymes, and Limericks, is likewise well chosen and well placed. I have especially valued RLG’s skill in finding verse not known by me from poets whose other work I know.