Quote:
Originally posted by Andrew Frisardi:
One thing that stands out for me in the poems posted here so far is how much the rhyming helps with the humor. Which got me thinking, how much really funny verse has not had rhymes? I'm not asking this rhetorically, I just can't think of much offhand. Billy Collins can be funny, and there are others recently. But rhyme is so effective for making the joke snap, as Blake said,
Her whole Life is an Epigram
Smack smooth & neatly pend
Platted quite neat to catch applause
With a sliding noose at the end
Doesn't a good rhyme in a funny poem sometimes seem like the funniest part?
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I absolutely agree. There was an interesting radio discussion (Australian) between the poets Peter Porter and Clive James in which they illustrated this point with numerous examples from the earliest poetry to the present day.
Andrew you will be interested in my argument that the old cliché that Italian has more rhymes than does English is a nonsense. Italian endings are grammar-driven whereas English is full of surprises and effective rhymes or near rhymes are infinite. I think that English is a natural language for sharp rhymed humour. That's one of the sad losses to poetry brought about by the unfashionableness of rhyme.
Janet