Well, I've already sounded off about this but I'll expand a bit. I think the main feature of light verse is not humour but comprehensibility to a general audience. I've cribbed this view from Stephen Fry, who says:
Light verse does not need to be comic in intent or witty in nature: it encourages readers to believe that they and the poet share the same discourse, intelligence and standing, inhabit the same universe of feeling and cultural reference, it does not howl in misunderstood loneliness, wallow in romantic agony or bombard the reader with learning and allusion from a Parnassian or abstrusely academic height.
I think we should be proud to be light poets. Especially Wendy Cope, who has my vote for High Priestess of the Order. I would write more but I'm busy designing our robes and sacrificial rites.
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