An anthology of horrid verse, mostly from the 1800s, which seemed to be a excellent period for horrendous poetry in English. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lnhammer, if I recall correctly, felt that there are better anthologies of ghastly poetry, but this is the first one I read, and it made me laugh quite a bit. Thank you, madame_silvertip!
I was intrigued to learn that Julia A. Moore was a “favorite” of Mark Twain; judging from her poems on the tragic deaths of innocents, she may well have been the inspiration for the morbid Emmeline Granger in Huckleberry Finn - and I am surprised that the notes didn’t even mention that possibility. Here’s a sample of her work:
And now, kind friends, what I have wrote,
I hope you will pass o’er
And not criticize as some have done
Hitherto herebefore.
Other poems are notable for their unique approach to rhyme:
Gooing babies, helpless pygmies,
Who shall solve your Fate’s enigmas?
This reminded me of the funniest bit in an unsold screenplay I read once, in which the hapless hero must dress up like a chicken and recite his company’s slogan:
Our name is Chicken Charming
It’s chicken we are farming
The price is not alarming
It’s in the oven warming.
And then there are the uninspiring objects of inspiration, like the 7000 pound cheese which inspired “Ode on the Mammoth Cheese:”
We have seen thee, queen of cheese,
Lying quietly at your ease,
Gently fanned by evening breeze,
Thy fair form no flies dare seize.
I leave you with these immortal lines:
Death!
Plop.
Very Bad Poetry
lnhammer, if I recall correctly, felt that there are better anthologies of ghastly poetry, but this is the first one I read, and it made me laugh quite a bit. Thank you, madame_silvertip!I was intrigued to learn that Julia A. Moore was a “favorite” of Mark Twain; judging from her poems on the tragic deaths of innocents, she may well have been the inspiration for the morbid Emmeline Granger in Huckleberry Finn - and I am surprised that the notes didn’t even mention that possibility. Here’s a sample of her work:
And now, kind friends, what I have wrote,
I hope you will pass o’er
And not criticize as some have done
Hitherto herebefore.
Other poems are notable for their unique approach to rhyme:
Gooing babies, helpless pygmies,
Who shall solve your Fate’s enigmas?
This reminded me of the funniest bit in an unsold screenplay I read once, in which the hapless hero must dress up like a chicken and recite his company’s slogan:
Our name is Chicken Charming
It’s chicken we are farming
The price is not alarming
It’s in the oven warming.
And then there are the uninspiring objects of inspiration, like the 7000 pound cheese which inspired “Ode on the Mammoth Cheese:”
We have seen thee, queen of cheese,
Lying quietly at your ease,
Gently fanned by evening breeze,
Thy fair form no flies dare seize.
I leave you with these immortal lines:
Death!
Plop.
Very Bad Poetry
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