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05-21-2008, 01:24 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Western Colorado
Posts: 2,176
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How's about poems that are big in the title and small
in the body? I'll start us off with a couple
I know offhand, and hope to be back later with more if
there's interest.
Here's Ogen Nash:
Reflection on a Wicked World
Purity
Is obscurity.
------------
and another, by Edmund Conti:
Geese Fly South for the Winter
in
formation
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05-21-2008, 03:12 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: California, USA
Posts: 375
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Billy Collins has a terrific one that goes something like - "The Poet Reclines with a Book of Classical Chinese Poems and, Moved by the Grace and Expansiveness of Their Titles, Begins to Write". The actual wording is nothing like that, but that's something like the basic idea (I think).
I love big titles. Even if they don't go with small poems. The only problem with them is that they're hard to remember.
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05-21-2008, 03:19 PM
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Member
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Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Western Colorado
Posts: 2,176
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I just found this one, attributed only to 'JA'
Poem about a young man who went to the fair
intending to have a good time and find a simple unaffected
country maid whom he could take home across the fields
and make love to on the way
He failed.
In fact, after a few enquiries he was jailed.
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05-21-2008, 03:49 PM
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Member
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Lynn Haven, FL, U.S.
Posts: 2,323
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Two Truths I Learned While Sitting On a Fence
Cats rule.
Dogs drool.
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05-21-2008, 04:35 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: NY, USA
Posts: 4,602
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Conti is a master of these; here is another of his:
The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions
Tried.
Fried.
This one is a bit long, but it's funny, so here it is:
In the Beginning Was the F-Word
And God said
Be fruitful
and multiply
but don't
talk about it.
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05-22-2008, 12:27 AM
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Member
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Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Western Colorado
Posts: 2,176
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Those are good'ns, Anne and Martin. Martin, I love
the second Conti. He's got a wit like nobody's bidness.
John, I couldn't find the Collins, but it sounds
really familiar.
I've been writing titles all night. They grow longer
and longer, but grow no poems, except this one
--
The Suspicious Astronomer, Sleuth-like, Keeps a Careful Eye on the Night Sky
At last,
the moon
slips
up.
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05-23-2008, 02:25 PM
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Member
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: NYC
Posts: 2,339
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Top heavy titles are, to me at least, the equal of hand claps in music - there will never be enough and they automatically make the song or poem fantastic.
I think a favorite of mine is this, from Pope:
Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness
I am his Highness' dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
also, I'm reminded of a one worded poem that goes, "Joe."
anyone remember what it is? I'm sure the title is longer than the body.
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05-23-2008, 05:48 PM
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Member
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Illinois, USA
Posts: 608
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I don't know if this one counts, but I heard it somewhere.
Humpty Dumpty Sat on the Wall Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall All the King's Horses and All the King's Men
had breakfast that morning.
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06-04-2008, 12:59 PM
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Distinguished Guest
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Belmont, Massachusetts USA
Posts: 2,976
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The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations says this is the shortest poem in the English language (by an unknown poet)
On the Antiquity of Microbes
Adam
had 'em.
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06-04-2008, 01:04 PM
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Distinguished Guest
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Belmont, Massachusetts USA
Posts: 2,976
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On Her Royal Majesty's Conferring Knighthood upon Former Beatle Paul McCartney
Sir Paul? By jingo!
Why not Sir Ringo?
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