Allegra Imazio Jones

Professor Warner

English 112B

December 3, 2008

Humor through Poetry

The feel of a good belly laugh is one of the most enjoyable experiences in life. Laughing so hard that tears roll down your cheeks feels good for the soul and leaves the laugher content for a time afterward. As the wise Bill Cosby said, "Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it." Laughter provides a person with catharsis after an emotional event. Humor can be used to soften the harsh sting of rejection or to make light of a situation that isn't as serious as it seems.

Poetry and humor engage young readers in many ways. They are learning about themselves through their ability to laugh and also learning what is actually important in their lives. Humor does not just make us laugh, but teaches the reader how to look carefully into to their own soul. According to William Davis the most important kind of humor is the kind of humor "that makes you laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes." Humor has the ability to catch even the most "selective non-reader" because it grabs a person at their most basic level. It keeps them alert and looking for more. Young adult readers can especially enjoy humorous poetry because it gives them something to relate to. They can read a poem that they think is about them exactly and be able to laugh. Teachers and parents alike can help create more interested readers by providing poetry that is not just humorous, but provides the reader with a jumping off point for some serious thinking and discussion.

Annotated Bibliography

American Poetry and Literacy Project, and Academy of American Poets, eds. How to Eat a Poem: A Smorgasbord of Tasty and Delicious Poems for Young Readers. New York: Dover Publications, March 10, 2006.

This collection contains seventy poems with a light nature that span a wide range of topics that readers can relate to: travel, adventure, love, friendship and even words themselves. This collection has a large selection of poets such as, Ernest Lawrence Thayer, Lewis Carroll, and Ogden Nash. This collection does a good job to try and cover a wide literary canon, but picks very common poems. The poems are grouped together nicely, allowing possible paired teachings of certain poems that could give way to creative writing projects.

Bynoe, Sarah, ed. Teen Angst: A Celebration of Really Bad Poetry. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005.

This is probably the first and only collection of teen angst poetry that has been published. The editor, Sarah Bynoe compiled this collection to help define the angsty teen through poetry. This book is divided into funny categories such as "I Am Alone" and "No One Understands My Pain." This collection consists of poetry written by, now, happy adults who managed to survive their teen years. This collection is a hilarious look at how people survive being a teenager and is a great way for students to see that they are not alone, but also understand and laugh at the situations that they have been in. This collection solidifies the idea "it is not the end of the world" and allows readers to hear it from people who have actually been there.

McCarver, Sam. Poetry Writing For Wanna-Be's: A Writer-Friendly Guidebook. LIncoln: IUniverse, 2006.

This book gives the reader simple guidelines on how to create your own poetry. In the first part of the book, the reader is taught different forms of poetry such as, free verse. The book has a list of terms that are useful and also helps a poetry fan critique a poem. This first section finishes with how to read your own poetry in public and then even get it published. The second half consists of 30 of Sam McCarver's own poems. The choice of poems he used is helpful because it ranges in different styles and topics. This book would be a fun way to get someone interested in poetry also interested in writing their own.

McGough, Roger, ed. Wicked Poems. N.p.: Bloomsbury, UK, 2004.

This book has a wide range of authors like Shakespeare, Kipling, Nash and Elliot. Besides the classic poetry new poems have been written especially for this anthology. The illustrations contribute a good deal to this book and really do make the reader "laugh devilishly" Although it may seem geared to younger children, I think this a good place to pique a poetry reader's interests, because it does contain classics that were chosen because of their funny content. This gives a person new to poetry a taste of what is available.

New Mexico Teens and Their Mentors, comp. Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Sunstone Press, 2004.

This book is a compilation of poems written by teens in New Mexico and the poets who have mentored them through their New Mexico Culturenet educational program. This program includes many different poetry based festivals and contest for high school students of that area. The poets in this collection are writing as part of their daily lives. The opening poem states "no matter how it sounds it sounds in waves," showing that no matter how a poem may sound it always has something to say. There are a good deal of humorous poems in this collection, especially about learning the English language and learning the intricacies of "PLOSIVES, SONANTS, DENTALS, AND GLOTTAL STOPS." This collection provides a useful look into the lives of these New Mexico high school students.

Petras, Ross, and Kathryn Petras, eds. Very Bad Poetry. New York: Vintage, 1997.

As an English major I know I have written some very terrible poetry in the past, but this book makes me feel less bad about it. This collection of poems shows that it requires talent to write bad poetry. This book provides an interesting anthology of some of the most awful poems that ruin rhyme schemes and throw terrible metaphors into our lives, all the while seeming like a grandiose work of art. This book while provide the most bored reader with some very hearty laughs, especially with poem titles like "Ode on the Mammoth Cheese" and will be sure to spark an interest in writing some "very bad poetry" of one's own.

Rosenberg, Liz, ed. The Invisible Ladder: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poets for Young Readers. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996.

This collection contains poems from many authors such as Rita Dove, Galway Kinnell, and Stanley Kunitz. The poems in this book include a good range of poems while still being accessible to a young adult audience. Liz Rosenberg includes poet's personal reflections along with their poems, showing insight on how they got interested in their field. Not only are there funny poems, but poems that take on a serious nature. This anthology is a well-rounded collection and is a good addition to any library.

Shakespeare, William. Stephen Orgel, eds. The Sonnets. New York: Penguin Classics, 1991.

This book of poetry contains all of Shakespeare's sonnets. Shakespeare wrote about love, friendship, hatred and covered a wide range of emotions in his sonnets. This collection can be dissected only for humorous poems and find that these poems tell a lot about human nature. The sonnet "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" is not only a funny poem in which the speaker describes his less than beautiful mate, but a lesson in the value of relationships. This sonnet alone is funny, but when analyzed teaches the reader what it really means to care about a person and whether appearances are important. I believe that Shakespeare is one of the most important poets and should always be presented to young adult readers.

Silverstein, Shel. Where the Sidewalk Ends. New York: HarperCollins, 1974.

Where the Sidewalk Ends is a collection of silly poems that appeal to readers of all ages, not just the young. This collection of poems and illustrations showcases Silverstein's great wit and his ability to mix the funny and philosophical. All of the poems in this collection are humorous, but also provoke great thought. The poem "The Garden" shows a man who grows a garden of riches and jewels, but at the end of the day wishes for a real peach, can provide young readers with questions that require them to look deep inside to answer. Although this book may be marketed to younger children, the thoughts it ignites in all readers makes it universal.

WritersCorp. Paint Me Like I Am. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

This collection of poems was compiled by teens that have taken part in writing programs put on by a non-profit organization, WritersCorp. This book contains voices from many diverse teenagers and the different experiences they've had. The chapters are divided into topics such as "Friendship" and "Furious" and reflect the feelings of the following poems. Although there are some poems that will make you chuckle, the majority of these poems reflect what painful experiences they have seen or heard in their young lives. Some of the poems tend to be rants, but I believe as a reader it is useful to understand the pain that went into these poems, and the understanding they need.