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Humorous Satires: How is the mind, and so is the song. Humour is something born with us, a built-in faculty by which we please the world. A humorous poem is not meant for us to laugh, but for the world to laugh heartily. It is meant to lead the world through laughter to serious and lofty thoughts. Every kind of degeneration is something to laugh at. So naturally every humorous poem would invariably be describing some kind of degeneration in human mind or society. And it is a dangerous business too- this calling everything in it's right name. Lord Halifax has once observed that a man who calls everything in it's right name will never cross the street without being knocked down as a common enemy. Only if we dare and have an amusing and humorous mind can we write a humorous poem. Reading John Dryden's Mac Flecknoe and Alexander Pope's Imitations Of Horace will give an idea about how humorous satires would be.

Read Ogden Nash for a lighter take on humor in poetry. In this paraphrased account, Nash had to decide early on if he was going to strive to be a serious poet, or if he was going to continue in his funny and satyrical style. He concluded that if he strove to be a serious he would end up as a bad great poet. He opted instead to become a great bad poet. It is to our great good fortune that he didn't do this by going to work for Hallmark.

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14y ago

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