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Favorite Poetic Parodies
"entertaining...good, clean fun..." -The Columbus Dispatch
"...very amusing..." -Toronto Globe & Mail
Some famous poems ache to be parodied. In school they were forced down our throats, and though we can still remember a verse or two, their greatness may have escaped us. Take, for instance, Longfellow's famous " -The Village Blacksmith":
Under a spreading chestnut-tree The village smithy stands; The smith, a mighty man is he With large and sinewy hands . . . .
Most of us have heard it, and may be able to recite a few verses. But many may prefer "The Minnesota Wrestler" by Armand T. Ringer:
Under the spreading repartee The St. Paul wrestler stands. The Body, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands. . . .
Ventura's hair, once black and long, Departed long ago; His brow was wet with honest sweat When he worked as a wrestling pro.
Even original wits can set themselves up for later parody. When Dorothy Parker wrote, "Men seldom make passes/At girls who wears glasses," could she have foreseen this later take-off by Bob McKenty? "Men often get amorous/With gals who are mammarous."
Whether you love poetry or just don't get it, you will love these often hilarious poetic parodies. Martin Gardner has assembled his favorites, many by famous authors in their own right (Robert Sherwood, G.K. Chesterton, A.E. Housman, Bret Harte). Gardner does us the favor of putting the original poems first, followed by their parodies, thus providing a sampling of some of the best-known poems in English while demonstrating how easily the profound can be made to look ridiculous.
Martin Gardner, the creator of Scientific American's "Mathematical Games" column, which he wrote for more than twenty-five years, is the author of almost one hundred books, including The Annotated Ancient Mariner, Martin Gardner's Favorite Poetic Parodies, From the Wandering Jew to William F. Buckley Jr., and Science: Good, Bad and Bogus. For many years he was also a contributing editor to the Skeptical Inquirer.
"...very amusing..." -Toronto Globe & Mail
Some famous poems ache to be parodied. In school they were forced down our throats, and though we can still remember a verse or two, their greatness may have escaped us. Take, for instance, Longfellow's famous " -The Village Blacksmith":
Under a spreading chestnut-tree The village smithy stands; The smith, a mighty man is he With large and sinewy hands . . . .
Most of us have heard it, and may be able to recite a few verses. But many may prefer "The Minnesota Wrestler" by Armand T. Ringer:
Under the spreading repartee The St. Paul wrestler stands. The Body, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands. . . .
Ventura's hair, once black and long, Departed long ago; His brow was wet with honest sweat When he worked as a wrestling pro.
Even original wits can set themselves up for later parody. When Dorothy Parker wrote, "Men seldom make passes/At girls who wears glasses," could she have foreseen this later take-off by Bob McKenty? "Men often get amorous/With gals who are mammarous."
Whether you love poetry or just don't get it, you will love these often hilarious poetic parodies. Martin Gardner has assembled his favorites, many by famous authors in their own right (Robert Sherwood, G.K. Chesterton, A.E. Housman, Bret Harte). Gardner does us the favor of putting the original poems first, followed by their parodies, thus providing a sampling of some of the best-known poems in English while demonstrating how easily the profound can be made to look ridiculous.
Martin Gardner, the creator of Scientific American's "Mathematical Games" column, which he wrote for more than twenty-five years, is the author of almost one hundred books, including The Annotated Ancient Mariner, Martin Gardner's Favorite Poetic Parodies, From the Wandering Jew to William F. Buckley Jr., and Science: Good, Bad and Bogus. For many years he was also a contributing editor to the Skeptical Inquirer.
- GenresHumor
ebook
First published October 1, 2001
8 people want to read
About the author
Martin Gardner
497 books506 followersMartin Gardner was an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, literature (especially the writings of Lewis Carroll), philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion. He wrote the Mathematical Games column in Scientific American from 1956 to 1981, and published over 70 books.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 20, 2011
Some of these parodies are mildly amusing, some puzzling, and a few really dumb. A surprising proportion have a golf theme; these, of course, belong to the last category. Maybe I'd appreciate them more if I knew anything about poetry.
Martin Gardner did me a huge favor by including the originals (or excerpts, in the case of long poems like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). I knew more of them than I expected, which isn't saying much. Perhaps the greatest value of this compilation to me was that it introduced me to a collection of poetry considered such a part of the "standard repertoire" that people would feel inclined to satirize it, assuming that the reader would be familiar with the original works.
Martin Gardner did me a huge favor by including the originals (or excerpts, in the case of long poems like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). I knew more of them than I expected, which isn't saying much. Perhaps the greatest value of this compilation to me was that it introduced me to a collection of poetry considered such a part of the "standard repertoire" that people would feel inclined to satirize it, assuming that the reader would be familiar with the original works.
Displaying 1 of 1 review