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Serious Concerns
A collection of poems featuring works by Cope such as "Bloody Men", "Men and their Boring Arguments" and "Two Cures for Love". Other collections include "Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis" and the long narrative poem "The River Girl".
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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19673 people want to read
About the author
Wendy Cope
63 books416 followersWendy Cope was educated at Farringtons School, Chislehurst, London and then, after finishing university at St Hilda's College, Oxford, she worked for 15 years as a primary school teacher in London.
In 1981, she became Arts and Reviews editor for the Inner London Education Authority magazine, 'Contact'. Five years later she became a freelance writer and was a television critic for 'The Spectator magazine' until 1990.
Her first published work 'Across the City' was in a limited edition, published by the Priapus Press in 1980 and her first commercial book of poetry was 'Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis' in 1986. Since then she has published two further books of poetry and has edited various anthologies of comic verse.
In 1987 she received a Cholmondeley Award for poetry and in 1995 the American Academy of Arts and Letters Michael Braude Award for light verse. In 2007 she was one of the judges for the Man Booker Prize.
In 1998 she was the BBC Radio 4 listeners' choice to succeed Ted Hughes as Poet Laureate and when Andrew Motion's term of office ended in 2009 she was once again considered as a replacement.
She was awarded the OBE in the Queen's 2010 Birthday Honours List.
Gerry Wolstenholme
February 2011
In 1981, she became Arts and Reviews editor for the Inner London Education Authority magazine, 'Contact'. Five years later she became a freelance writer and was a television critic for 'The Spectator magazine' until 1990.
Her first published work 'Across the City' was in a limited edition, published by the Priapus Press in 1980 and her first commercial book of poetry was 'Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis' in 1986. Since then she has published two further books of poetry and has edited various anthologies of comic verse.
In 1987 she received a Cholmondeley Award for poetry and in 1995 the American Academy of Arts and Letters Michael Braude Award for light verse. In 2007 she was one of the judges for the Man Booker Prize.
In 1998 she was the BBC Radio 4 listeners' choice to succeed Ted Hughes as Poet Laureate and when Andrew Motion's term of office ended in 2009 she was once again considered as a replacement.
She was awarded the OBE in the Queen's 2010 Birthday Honours List.
Gerry Wolstenholme
February 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,074 reviews
March 21, 2024
i have serious concerns (for everyone who hasn't read this yet)
June 15, 2021
Now this is how you address serious concerns! *chef's kiss*
Here's one of my favorite poems from this book. Read it. It's therapy.
‘The Orange’
" At lunchtime I bought a huge orange —
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave —
They got quarters and I had a half.
And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.
The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist. "
Some honorable mentions:
‘Bloody Men’
" Bloody men are like bloody buses -
You wait for about a year
And as soon as one approaches your stop
Two or three others appear.
You look at them flashing their indicators,
Offering you a ride.
You're trying to read the destination,
You haven't much time to decide.
If you make a mistake, there is no turning back.
Jump off, and you'll stand there and gaze
While the cars and the taxis and lorries go by
And the minutes, the hours, the days. "
‘Loss’
" The day he moved out was terrible —
That evening she went through hell.
His absence wasn’t a problem
But the corkscrew had gone as well. "
Here's one of my favorite poems from this book. Read it. It's therapy.
‘The Orange’
" At lunchtime I bought a huge orange —
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave —
They got quarters and I had a half.
And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.
The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist. "
Some honorable mentions:
‘Bloody Men’
" Bloody men are like bloody buses -
You wait for about a year
And as soon as one approaches your stop
Two or three others appear.
You look at them flashing their indicators,
Offering you a ride.
You're trying to read the destination,
You haven't much time to decide.
If you make a mistake, there is no turning back.
Jump off, and you'll stand there and gaze
While the cars and the taxis and lorries go by
And the minutes, the hours, the days. "
‘Loss’
" The day he moved out was terrible —
That evening she went through hell.
His absence wasn’t a problem
But the corkscrew had gone as well. "
September 7, 2014
Cope's second collection came out in 1992, a full six years after her first. It's another slim volume, Cope never being the most prolific poet – nevertheless, it was this that cemented her reputation, and when Ted Hughes died in 1998 she was the popular choice to replace him as Poet Laureate. Instead it went to Andrew Motion. (Cope's name came up again when Motion stepped down in 2009, but this time Liz decided – probably rightly – on Carol Ann Duffy.)
The poems here reflect her increasing celebrity, with a few responding directly to critics. After a review in the Spectator commented – with magisterial condescension – that she writes primarily ‘to amuse’, Cope tossed off this:
Write to amuse? What an appalling suggestion!
I write to make people anxious and miserable and to worsen their indigestion.
Elsewhere she seems to have been going through a more challenging time in her personal life, with many poems revolving around break-ups and general frustration with men, although her alertness to humour prevents her ever from slipping into cynicism. (This is indeed one of the uses of humour in life, as writers like Wendy Cope can teach you.)
Loss
The day he moved out was terrible—
That evening she went through hell.
His absence wasn't a problem
But the corkscrew had gone as well.
Some other titles alone give the flavour – ‘Bloody Men’, one of her most famous; or ‘Men and their Boring Arguments’. The final stanza of ‘I Worry’ will summarise the general mood:
They say that men suffer,
As badly, as long.
I worry, I worry,
In case they are wrong.
Also falling into this category is one of her most anthologised poems, the short and awesome ‘Two Cures for Love’, which runs in its entirety:
Two Cures for Love
1. Don't see him. Don't phone or write a letter.
2. The easy way: get to know him better.
Overall this is a wonderful book of poetry, perhaps her best. For some reason the one that always sticks in my head from this collection is ‘Kindness to Animals’, a poem she wrote for a fund-raising anthology produced by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Kindness to Animals
If I went vegetarian
And didn't eat lambs for dinner,
I think I'd be a better person
And also thinner.
But the lamb is not endangered
And at least I can truthfully say
I have never, ever eaten a barn owl,
So perhaps I am OK.
The poem was, Cope notes, ‘rejected as unsuitable’.
November 27, 2020
I can't forgive you. Even if I could,
You wouldn't pardon me for seeing through you.
And yet I cannot cure myself of love
For what I thought you were before I knew you.
- - - -
It's all because we're so alike —
Twin souls, we two.
We smile at the expression, yes,
And know it's true.
I told the shrink. He gave our love
A different name.
But he can call it what he likes —
It's still the same.
I long to see you, hear your voice,
My narcissistic object-choice.
- - - -
When you're a spinster at forty,
You're reduced to considering bids
From husbands inclined to be naughty
And divorces obsessed with their kids.
So perhaps you should wed in a hurry,
But that has it's drawbacks as well.
The answer? There's no need to worry —
Whatever you do, life is hell.
February 18, 2022
we love a misandrist poet
from this i’ve learned that i like my poetry more on the depressing/existential side, but it was nice to read something different
from this i’ve learned that i like my poetry more on the depressing/existential side, but it was nice to read something different
April 1, 2021
'some more light verse' made me cry before 10am so this collection did exactly what it had to
April 22, 2021
3.5 as an anthology but 5 for the orange, a poem which has never failed to make me feel fifteen times better
December 29, 2024
Easily the best poetry collection I've read this year, and possibly my favourite collection I've ever read!? Wendy Cope's prose is beautiful, emotional and witty. I was highlighting every few pages and can't even pick a favourite poem, they were all so good. Really happy to have found a 5-star read this close to the end of the year, and potentially a new favourite author!
Side note: I can't find an epub or pdf of The Orange and Other Poems by Wendy Cope anywhere, if anyone has a copy please dm me!
My three favourites from the collection:
Side note: I can't find an epub or pdf of The Orange and Other Poems by Wendy Cope anywhere, if anyone has a copy please dm me!
My three favourites from the collection:
Some More Light Verse, Wendy Cope
You have to try. You see a shrink.
You learn a lot. You think.
You struggle to improve your looks.
You meet some men. You write some books.
You eat good food. You give up junk.
You do not smoke. You don't get drunk.
You take up yoga, walks and swims.
And nothing works. The outlook's grim.
You don't know what to do. You cry.
You're running out of things to try.
You blow your nose. You see the shrink.
You walk. You give up food and drink.
You fall in love. You make a plan.
You struggle to improve your man.
And nothing works The outlook's grim.
You go to yoga, cry, and swim.
You eat and drink. You give up looks.
You struggle to improve your books.
You cannot see the point. You sign.
You do not smoke. You have to try.
The Orange, Wendy Cope
At lunchtime I bought a huge orange -
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave -
They got quarters and I had a half.
And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.
The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist.
Names, Wendy Cope
She was Eliza for a few weeks
When she was a baby -
Eliza Lily. Soon it changed to Lil.
Later she was Miss Stweard in the baker's shop
And then 'my love', 'my darling', Mother
Widowed at thirty, she went back to work
As Mrs Hand. Her daughter grew up,
Married and gave birth.
Now she was Nanna. 'Everybody
Calls me Nanna,' she would say to visitors.
And so they did - friends, tradesmen, the doctor.
In the geriatric ward
They used the patients' Christian names,
'Lil,' we said, 'or Nanna,'
But it wasn't in her file
And for those last bewildered weeks
She was Eliza once again.
August 1, 2018
If you think you don't like poetry - euuuh,
We had to do it in school.
Try this - you'll never look back.
We had to do it in school.
Try this - you'll never look back.
May 2, 2019
For twenty years I've had this book
Of poems by Wendy Cope.
Twenty years without a look,
Twenty years of not much hope.
Then the book came up by random,
My spreadsheet said I should read it next.
And voila, I'm in her fandom
By reading this winsome and witty text.
Of poems by Wendy Cope.
Twenty years without a look,
Twenty years of not much hope.
Then the book came up by random,
My spreadsheet said I should read it next.
And voila, I'm in her fandom
By reading this winsome and witty text.
November 14, 2024
4.5. Very good - excellent fun.
June 7, 2025
Wendy Cope’s poems are so funny that some critics have pigeonholed her as a comic poet or a purveyor of light verse. This view of Cope as an entertaining lightweight - popular but not to be taken too seriously - couldn’t be further from the truth. She is a very serious poet indeed, but one who understands that seriousness and humour are not opposites; a simple truth, albeit one which a certain kind of mentality does seem to struggle with.
This was her second collection and some of the poems are responses to the sometimes patronising reviews of her first, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis. A poem about life being awful, no matter what you do, is sardonically entitled Some More Light Verse. The title poem is a reply to a review in the Spectator magazine which suggested that her poems were written ‘to amuse’, and cited her wit and lack of pretension as limitations. Cope wonders how she should resolve this problem; by ‘being less witty? Or more pretentious? Or both?’ The poem ends-:
‘Write to amuse? What an appalling suggestion!
I write to make people anxious and miserable and to
worsen their indigestion.’
Cope is a brilliant parodist of male poets and there are some hilariously biting parodies in this volume, written by her alter ego Jason Strugnell, the Bard of Tulse Hill. The main focus, however, is on relationships and there is a great deal of anger here. Some of the titles tell their own story: Bloody Men, Tumps (Typically Useless Male Poets), and Men and Their Boring Arguments-:
‘What makes men so tedious
Is the need to show off and compete.
They’ll bore you to death for hours and hours
Before they’ll admit defeat.’
Her tone can be much gentler. The poignant Flowers, about a former lover who was always intending to bring her flowers but never quite got round to it, hovers ambivalently between reproach and forgiveness-:
‘It made me smile and hug you then.
Now I can only smile.
But, look, the flowers you nearly brought
Have lasted all this while.’
Despite moments of contentment and happiness (as in the beautiful and deeply moving The Orange), Cope’s vision here is mainly a bleak one: relationships are impossible and being single is hell. Reading this book Thoreau’s quote about most people living lives of quite desperation often came to mind. These poems are a cry from the suburbs, though one of defiance as much as despair. The wit and humour are not sugar coating but an integral part of her outlook. Life is both funny and sad, often at the same time, and so are Cope’s poems. Her work is technically accomplished and sharply focussed, yet full of raw emotion: caustic, tender, accusatory, irreverent, vulnerable, and uncompromisingly honest. The laughter provoked by her poetry is that of recognition. Wendy Cope makes me laugh because she tells the truth about herself and life.
This was her second collection and some of the poems are responses to the sometimes patronising reviews of her first, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis. A poem about life being awful, no matter what you do, is sardonically entitled Some More Light Verse. The title poem is a reply to a review in the Spectator magazine which suggested that her poems were written ‘to amuse’, and cited her wit and lack of pretension as limitations. Cope wonders how she should resolve this problem; by ‘being less witty? Or more pretentious? Or both?’ The poem ends-:
‘Write to amuse? What an appalling suggestion!
I write to make people anxious and miserable and to
worsen their indigestion.’
Cope is a brilliant parodist of male poets and there are some hilariously biting parodies in this volume, written by her alter ego Jason Strugnell, the Bard of Tulse Hill. The main focus, however, is on relationships and there is a great deal of anger here. Some of the titles tell their own story: Bloody Men, Tumps (Typically Useless Male Poets), and Men and Their Boring Arguments-:
‘What makes men so tedious
Is the need to show off and compete.
They’ll bore you to death for hours and hours
Before they’ll admit defeat.’
Her tone can be much gentler. The poignant Flowers, about a former lover who was always intending to bring her flowers but never quite got round to it, hovers ambivalently between reproach and forgiveness-:
‘It made me smile and hug you then.
Now I can only smile.
But, look, the flowers you nearly brought
Have lasted all this while.’
Despite moments of contentment and happiness (as in the beautiful and deeply moving The Orange), Cope’s vision here is mainly a bleak one: relationships are impossible and being single is hell. Reading this book Thoreau’s quote about most people living lives of quite desperation often came to mind. These poems are a cry from the suburbs, though one of defiance as much as despair. The wit and humour are not sugar coating but an integral part of her outlook. Life is both funny and sad, often at the same time, and so are Cope’s poems. Her work is technically accomplished and sharply focussed, yet full of raw emotion: caustic, tender, accusatory, irreverent, vulnerable, and uncompromisingly honest. The laughter provoked by her poetry is that of recognition. Wendy Cope makes me laugh because she tells the truth about herself and life.
Read
October 28, 2021I’m a poetry girl now
March 20, 2022
Unfortunately, this wasn't really my cup of tea. It was written in the 90s, so the sensibility feels a little dated. There's a lot of "lol alcohol(ism) amirite" and "men are dumb, eh?" vibes that just feel so played out at this point. There are also references that I had to Google and something is thereby lost in translation.
Also, I can appreciate some snark and pettiness, but there was a lot that just rubbed me the wrong way and fell flat for me. One example is a poem titled "Kindness to Animals," which is noted to have been commissioned for an anthology benefitting the World Wide Fund for Nature but which was rejected as unsuitable:
"If I went vegetarian
And didn't eat lambs for dinner,
I think I'd be a better person
And also thinner.
But the lamb is not endangered
And at least I can truthfully say
I have never, ever eaten a barn owl,
So perhaps I am OK."
Just, why? She was in her 40s when this was published but this feels like a dumb prank a high school student would pull. Maybe I'm a party pooper, but this attitude didn't work for me.
I do agree with many other readers that the poem "The Orange" is a delight, and I can definitely see myself revisiting it when depression makes it hard to appreciate the little gems in life and I need a reminder on how to do so. There were a few other poems I liked as well, but on the whole, this is not for me, and that's okay. 😎
Also, I can appreciate some snark and pettiness, but there was a lot that just rubbed me the wrong way and fell flat for me. One example is a poem titled "Kindness to Animals," which is noted to have been commissioned for an anthology benefitting the World Wide Fund for Nature but which was rejected as unsuitable:
"If I went vegetarian
And didn't eat lambs for dinner,
I think I'd be a better person
And also thinner.
But the lamb is not endangered
And at least I can truthfully say
I have never, ever eaten a barn owl,
So perhaps I am OK."
Just, why? She was in her 40s when this was published but this feels like a dumb prank a high school student would pull. Maybe I'm a party pooper, but this attitude didn't work for me.
I do agree with many other readers that the poem "The Orange" is a delight, and I can definitely see myself revisiting it when depression makes it hard to appreciate the little gems in life and I need a reminder on how to do so. There were a few other poems I liked as well, but on the whole, this is not for me, and that's okay. 😎
November 7, 2022
2.5
Wendy Cope writes quite simple poetry, and I happen to enjoy a simplistic approach to a poem every now and then (I even enjoy the occasional Rupi Kaur). I think this collection shows the two sides of this kind of style: on one hand, poems like the iconic „The Orange“ really show how effective a simple poem utilizing casual language evocatively can be, and that short, funny ones like „Loss“ that almost read more like jokes than poems, work great as interludes.
On the other hand, you can clearly see in many poems in this collection that a simple style can also lead to forgettable, boring poetry. Personally, I found the poems that dealt with romantic relationships directly (not just mentioned in the periphery) to be the weakest - probably because the subject matter has been done throughout centuries of poetry and the simplistic style really is a hindrance here, it needs originality and freshness to create an emotional reaction from the reader. This is not to say Wendy Cope writes just simple poems, she has a very specific style, which I think can have a certain appeal for some readers, I might just not be the target audience.
All in all, this collection was a very mixed bag, but it is no doubt accessible poetry, which I always think has at least some merit, and I‘m glad to own it for „The Orange“ alone, it really is one of my all-time favorites.
Wendy Cope writes quite simple poetry, and I happen to enjoy a simplistic approach to a poem every now and then (I even enjoy the occasional Rupi Kaur). I think this collection shows the two sides of this kind of style: on one hand, poems like the iconic „The Orange“ really show how effective a simple poem utilizing casual language evocatively can be, and that short, funny ones like „Loss“ that almost read more like jokes than poems, work great as interludes.
On the other hand, you can clearly see in many poems in this collection that a simple style can also lead to forgettable, boring poetry. Personally, I found the poems that dealt with romantic relationships directly (not just mentioned in the periphery) to be the weakest - probably because the subject matter has been done throughout centuries of poetry and the simplistic style really is a hindrance here, it needs originality and freshness to create an emotional reaction from the reader. This is not to say Wendy Cope writes just simple poems, she has a very specific style, which I think can have a certain appeal for some readers, I might just not be the target audience.
All in all, this collection was a very mixed bag, but it is no doubt accessible poetry, which I always think has at least some merit, and I‘m glad to own it for „The Orange“ alone, it really is one of my all-time favorites.
October 5, 2011
I will admit that I did not read the entire collection of poems; however, I very much enjoyed the poem "Bloody Men," which I shall post here and explain why henceforth.
Bloody men are like bloody buses;
You wait for about a year,
And as soon as one approaches your stop,
Two or three others appear.
You look at them flashing their indicators,
Offering you a ride.
You're trying to read the destinations;
You haven't much time to decide.
If you make a mistake, there is no turning back.
Jump off, and you'll stand there and gaze
While the cars and the taxis and lorries go by
And the minutes, and hours, and days.
Wendy Cope (1945-)
I found this modern poem in one of the didactic handouts my classics and medieval literature professor gives us. I loved it because it's so true! This poem is soooo characteristic of the period in one's life when one is trying to choose amongst the suitors, and what happens when the person chooses the wrong suitor and is forced to get off the bus.
Before I got married, I used to think about the dating game as that part of the game show "The Price Is Right" when you are made to choose one of two closed doors while having no idea what's behind them... but after making the choice, if you make the wrong choice and it turns out the other door was the better choice, you can't change your mind. The indecision of youth used to remind me so much of that game!
This poem can also be read by a man as "Bloody Women,", because the struggle of finding "the right one" is universal. I may be on the right bus now, but heaven knows it's hard as hell to find the right bus stop! I know it's a universal truth, and I know most of my friends would agree.
Bloody men are like bloody buses;
You wait for about a year,
And as soon as one approaches your stop,
Two or three others appear.
You look at them flashing their indicators,
Offering you a ride.
You're trying to read the destinations;
You haven't much time to decide.
If you make a mistake, there is no turning back.
Jump off, and you'll stand there and gaze
While the cars and the taxis and lorries go by
And the minutes, and hours, and days.
Wendy Cope (1945-)
I found this modern poem in one of the didactic handouts my classics and medieval literature professor gives us. I loved it because it's so true! This poem is soooo characteristic of the period in one's life when one is trying to choose amongst the suitors, and what happens when the person chooses the wrong suitor and is forced to get off the bus.
Before I got married, I used to think about the dating game as that part of the game show "The Price Is Right" when you are made to choose one of two closed doors while having no idea what's behind them... but after making the choice, if you make the wrong choice and it turns out the other door was the better choice, you can't change your mind. The indecision of youth used to remind me so much of that game!
This poem can also be read by a man as "Bloody Women,", because the struggle of finding "the right one" is universal. I may be on the right bus now, but heaven knows it's hard as hell to find the right bus stop! I know it's a universal truth, and I know most of my friends would agree.
Read
February 20, 2022read this on the train.
clearly Not the type of poetry i enjoy so very underwhelming but some of these... they made me so happy.. as ordinary things often do <3
clearly Not the type of poetry i enjoy so very underwhelming but some of these... they made me so happy.. as ordinary things often do <3
December 29, 2021
wendy cope lost me in the middle of this collection but the end was so strong and beautiful it made up for it. what a lovely poet, glad i finally got around to her work <3
September 3, 2016
Excellent read for cheering anybody up on a rainy day, whether real or emotional rain. I think my favourite verse is the first one from "Men and Their Boring Arguments":
One man on his own can be quite good fun
But don't go drinking with two -
They'll probably have an argument
And take no notice of you.
One man on his own can be quite good fun
But don't go drinking with two -
They'll probably have an argument
And take no notice of you.
September 10, 2024
really simple, which doesn't work for me with rupi kaur, etc. — maybe it works here because it feels like there's more meaning and less melodrama to the simplicity. I also personally like the parts that are more life-affirming and humorous.
favorite poems: The Orange, Defining the Problem, Some More Light Verse, As Sweet, Loss, I Worry, Two Cures for Love, Favourite, & New Season
favorite poems: The Orange, Defining the Problem, Some More Light Verse, As Sweet, Loss, I Worry, Two Cures for Love, Favourite, & New Season
May 1, 2021
I read this book for my “reading like uncarley” video so if you’re interested in hearing my thoughts check it out:
https://youtu.be/GqknYKrkv5M
https://youtu.be/GqknYKrkv5M
May 27, 2023
I am not wired to understand poems :")
August 12, 2021
The Orange is a beautiful poem, there are some gems in here - if you sift. I struggle with the end rhymes, sometimes they feel trite.
Read
January 14, 2025Two Cures for Love
1 Don’t see him. Don’t phone or write a letter.
2 The easy way: get to know him better.
1 Don’t see him. Don’t phone or write a letter.
2 The easy way: get to know him better.
December 25, 2020
Not a bad collection to read on Christmas Day, there's like four different Christmas poems in here and they are all classic ironical/bitter jokes about the state of celebrating Christmas that just get more relatable every year.
Some of Cope's best and most serious poetry reminds me of Mary Oliver a little bit, like "The Aerial" and particularly "The Orange," in its accessibility and sincerity, but she spends the majority of her time distinguishing herself quite carefully from most writers of light verse and the literary scene in general with a degree of totally acerbic silliness and disregard for most institutional figures (publishers and the world wildlife fund) that is entirely foreign to Oliver and also everything written by Instagram poets. This makes her a little bit like Ogden Nash as well: reading a substantial quantity of a great writer of light verse in a single session will quickly reveal more serious undertones that are revealed and illuminated by taking the light verse route to them, contra, say, reading Wordsworth. Cope actually has a poem in here called "An Argument with Wordsworth" in which her punchline is that poetry is not emotion recollected in tranquility but rather, sometimes, "emotion recollected in a highly emotional state" (46). This I think is a useful aesthetic summary of her project.
Cope exceeds Nash by also being in many cases explicitly sick of the masculinism of much light verse - I like Nash and his poetry seems pretty consistently sweet and modest but it is of course an old-fashioned guy writing about women fairly often - and she regularly skewers the dreary mannishness of many conventional social situations such as being at the pub or having to do the dishes after Christmas dinner. It has a little bit of a "feminist essentialisation" atmosphere at times, which, to be fair, is difficult to shake off given the way that light verse often depends, even if to criticise them, on beginning from tropes and stereotypes and cliches about sex difference. Just a reservation I have about some of the poems whose mock-misandrist acerbicity ends up being largely depressing. But then again, nobody said light poets have to be happy all the time! "After the Lunch" is literally one of the greatest love poems of the last 30 years and "Flowers" is like a Slavoj Žižek joke except actually heartbreaking.
Some of Cope's best and most serious poetry reminds me of Mary Oliver a little bit, like "The Aerial" and particularly "The Orange," in its accessibility and sincerity, but she spends the majority of her time distinguishing herself quite carefully from most writers of light verse and the literary scene in general with a degree of totally acerbic silliness and disregard for most institutional figures (publishers and the world wildlife fund) that is entirely foreign to Oliver and also everything written by Instagram poets. This makes her a little bit like Ogden Nash as well: reading a substantial quantity of a great writer of light verse in a single session will quickly reveal more serious undertones that are revealed and illuminated by taking the light verse route to them, contra, say, reading Wordsworth. Cope actually has a poem in here called "An Argument with Wordsworth" in which her punchline is that poetry is not emotion recollected in tranquility but rather, sometimes, "emotion recollected in a highly emotional state" (46). This I think is a useful aesthetic summary of her project.
Cope exceeds Nash by also being in many cases explicitly sick of the masculinism of much light verse - I like Nash and his poetry seems pretty consistently sweet and modest but it is of course an old-fashioned guy writing about women fairly often - and she regularly skewers the dreary mannishness of many conventional social situations such as being at the pub or having to do the dishes after Christmas dinner. It has a little bit of a "feminist essentialisation" atmosphere at times, which, to be fair, is difficult to shake off given the way that light verse often depends, even if to criticise them, on beginning from tropes and stereotypes and cliches about sex difference. Just a reservation I have about some of the poems whose mock-misandrist acerbicity ends up being largely depressing. But then again, nobody said light poets have to be happy all the time! "After the Lunch" is literally one of the greatest love poems of the last 30 years and "Flowers" is like a Slavoj Žižek joke except actually heartbreaking.
May 18, 2020
"At lunchtime I bought a huge orange--
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave--
They got quarters and I had a half.
And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It's new.
The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I'm glad I exist."
-- "The Orange"
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave--
They got quarters and I had a half.
And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It's new.
The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I'm glad I exist."
-- "The Orange"
July 14, 2021
This gal gets it, I love this book 💖💖
April 16, 2025
• We all have to be sensible sooner or later
But I refuse to be sensible all the time. •
📒🍊♀️
Eine handvoll Gedichte hat mich emotional abgeholt, aber die Mehrheit war leider entweder thematisch nicht meins, zu repetitiv oder hat aus anderen stilistischen Gründen ihre Wirkung bei mir verfehlt.
But I refuse to be sensible all the time. •
📒🍊♀️
Eine handvoll Gedichte hat mich emotional abgeholt, aber die Mehrheit war leider entweder thematisch nicht meins, zu repetitiv oder hat aus anderen stilistischen Gründen ihre Wirkung bei mir verfehlt.
May 31, 2023
Laut gelacht und geweint
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