We remember, even if we don't really read, Ogden Nash and Dorothy Parker from the golden age of American light verse, but there were a number of very fine and popular poets of that time who are forgotten. Auden wrote an introduction to a Phyllis McGinley best seller. Joseph Auslander, who also wrote other poetry and was a major Petrarch translator, was one of the first poetry consultants at the Library of Congress, the position that evolved into our Poet Laureate. There were at least a half dozen similar others who were widely read at the time, such as David McCord.
The reason why Parker survives and McGinley does not is at least twofold--McGinley relies more heavily on topical references that we no longer recognize, and Parker at her best (which was not as common as one would hope) is just plain better. It's also true that humor of the period will sometimes make even someone with a non-PC self-image cringe--particularly the dialect poems, which were extremely popular at the time.
I'd add some samples but I am away from my beloved books.
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