The Oxford Book of Comic Verse

by JohnGross (Editor)

• Used

  Paperback
  1995

  $3.25

  From Geoffrey Chaucer to G. K. Chesterton, Augustan satire to advertising jingles, John Updike to Vikram Seth and Victoria Wood, comic verse, has in its many forms, kept us amused for centuries. This superb anthology, notable above all for its breadth, reflects the international scope of humour by bringing together poets from far beyond the British Isles. Drawing on many different types of verse - epigrams, street ballads, clerihews, music-hall lyrics, and the double-dactyl - it offers an exceptionally wide range of comic pleasures. The poems are by turns subtle, down-to-earth, macabre, ingenious, acerbic, ribald and cheerful; written to amuse, they call forth laughter and delight in equal measure. This book is intended for buyers of poetry, anthologies, humorous books.

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $4.21

  From Chaucer to Vikram Seth and Victoria Wood; from Byron to John Updike; from Augustan satire to advertising jingles; from G. K. Chesterton to Wendy Cope - this superb anthology is notable above all for its breadth. It is truly international in scope, bringing together poets from far beyond the British Isles. Drawing on many different types of verse, from epigrams to street ballads, from clerihew to music-hall lyrics, from the double-dactyl of the calypso, it offers an exceptionally wide range of comic pleasures. The poems in this collection are by turns subtle, down-to-earth, macabre, ingenious, acerbic, ribald, and cheerful; written to amuse, they call forth laughter and delight in equal measure. The established classics of comic verse, writers such as Tom Hood, W. S. Gilbert, and Ogden Nash, are represented in force, but many unfamiliar or unexpected names are also included; so are many recent writers - the classics of the future. This collection undoubtedly contains matter of great historical interest, but the emphasis throughout is firmly on enjoyment.