Bedford Public Library

The Norton book of light verse, edited by Russell Baker, with the assistance of Kathleen Leland Baker

eng

index present

non fiction

The Norton book of light verse

edited by Russell Baker, with the assistance of Kathleen Leland Baker

A collection of 400 poems arranged in eighteen thematic sections

Twentieth century blues: Marquis, Don. from Certain maxims of Archy -- Auden, W.H. The unknown citizen/Doggerel by a senior citizen -- MacNeice, Louis. Bagpipe music -- Updike, John. Insomnia the gem of the ocean -- Kinnell, Galway. In a parlor containing a table -- Piercy, Marge. The development -- Ciardi, John. Suburban -- Ginsberg, Allen. I am a victim of telephone -- Lazard, Naomi. In answer to your query -- Conway, Jack. Clothes make the man -- Lipton, James. [Misericordia!] -- Larkin, Philip. Annus mirabilis -- Chappell, Fred. Guess who -- Hoffenstein, Samuel. [Babies haven't any hair] -- Nash, Ogden. A man can complain, can't he? -- Coward, Noel. What's going to happen to the tots? -- Blaker, Margaret. Pippa passes, but I can't get around this truck -- Robinson, Edwin Arlington. Miniver Cheevy -- Parry, David Fisher. Miniver Cheevy, Jr. Arts and letters: Wilbur, Richard. The prisoner of Zenda -- Garth, Samuel. [What frenzy has of late possess'd the brain!] -- Herbert, A.E. Triangular legs -- White, E.B.I paint what I see -- Hollander, John. The Russian soul II -- Anonymous. What Hiawatha probably did -- Sagoff, Maurice. Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe/Preface ShrinkLit: Elements of style William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White -- Prior, Matthew. Earning a dinner -- Hecht, Anthony. The Dover bitch -- Cowper, William. Simplicity -- Coleridge, Hartley. Fie on Eastern luxury! -- Thackeray, William Makepeace. A Victorian paraphrase -- Field, Eugene. The preference declared -- Dobson, Austin. Persicos odi: Pocket version -- Whicher, George F. Myrtle for two -- Preston, Keith. Chicago analogue -- Carryl, Guy Wetmore. The sycophantic fox and the gullible raven -- Coward, Noel. He never did that to me -- Burgess, Gelett. The purple cow/Confession -- Sharpless, Stanley J. Hamlet -- Anonymous. You're the top -- Porter, Cole. Brush up your Shakespeare -- Hood, Thomas. To Minerva -- Bishop, Morris. [The limerick is furtive and mean] -- Gilbert, W.S. Song (from "Patience") -- Holmes, Oliver Wendell. Cacoëthes scribendi -- Fried, Barbara. The good old days -- Adams, Franklin P. ("F. P.A.") To a thesaurus -- Preston, Keith. The parental critic -- Belloc, Hillaire. On his books -- Anonymous. To a living author -- Wilbur, Richard. What's good for the soul is good for sales/To an American poet just dead -- Thackeray, William Makepeace. The sorrows of Werther -- Beerbohm, Max. Thomas Hardy and A.E. Housman -- Jonson, Ben. On English monsieur -- Veale, Peter. from Jonsonian poem in progress -- Ransom, John Crowe. Survey of literature -- Nemerov, Howard. Mystery story -- Benson, Gerard. The probatioun officeres tale -- Thomas, Lord Erskine. On Scott's "The field of Waterloo" -- McKinney, Laurence. Oboe -- Carryl, Guy Wetmore. A ballad -- Gray, Victor. ('All the world's a stage') -- Hoffenstein, Samuel. Birdie McReynolds/Miss Millay says something too -- McGinley, Phyllis. Public journal -- Taylor, Bert Leston. ("B. L.T.") Upon Julia's arctics -- Kingsmill, Hugh. What, still alive -- Koch, Kenneth. Variations on a theme by William Carlos Williams -- Reed, Henry. Chard Whitlow -- Kennedy, X.J. From Emily Dickinson in Southern California -- Anonymous. Justice to Scotland -- Chesterton, C.K. Variations on an air composed on having to appear in a pagaent as Old King Cole. Some fun with the mother tongue: McCord, David. Ascot waistcoat -- Godley, A.D. On the motor bus -- Anonymous. The American Indian -- Hollis, Mark. 'Twixt cup and lip -- Guiterman, Arthur. Everything in its place -- Anonymous. Carmen Possum -- Bishop, Morris. The naughty preposition -- Loomis, Charles Battell. O-U-G-H -- King, Stoddard. Idyll -- Guiterman, Arthur. Local note -- Cole, WIlliam. Oh, noa, noa! -- Feinstein, Robert N. Woolly words -- British and Colonial printer. An Arab and his donkey -- Preston, Keith. Lapsus linguae. Only human: Nemerov, Howard. Life cycle of common man -- Dickinson, Emily. I'm nobody! Who are you? -- Anonymous. Brian O'Linn -- Burns, Robert. The, jolly beggars -- Bersohn, Robert. The dignity of labor -- George Gordon, Lord Byron. When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home -- Williams, Tennessee. Carrousel tune -- Chappell, Fred. from My mother shoots the breeze -- Roethke, Theodore. from Three epigrams -- White, E.B. To a lady across the way -- Nash, Ogden. Ha! Original sin! -- Untermeyer, Louis. Repentance -- Marquis, Don. The song of Mehitabel -- Davison, Peter. Motley -- McGinley, Phyllis. Reflections at dawn -- Hemminger, Graham Lee. The smoking world -- Herbert, A.P. Saturday night -- Anonymous. Darwinism in the kitchen -- Roethke, Theodore. Song for the squeeze-box -- Betjeman, John. In Westminster Abbey -- King, Stoddard. Trombone solo -- Coward, Noel. I've been to a marvellous party. Life's losers: King, Ben. The pessimist -- Kennedy, X.J. Brats -- Parker, Dorothy. The flaw in paganism -- Frost, Robert. The objection to being stepped on -- Guiterman, Arthur. On the vanity of earthly greatness -- Nash, Ogden. Mr. Artesian's conscientiousness -- Young, Dorothy. Last lauch -- Housman, A.E. Hallelujah! -- Nash, Ogden. Requiem -- Parker, Dorothy. Sanctuary -- Fuller, John. De Sade -- Anonymous. [The night was growing old] -- Anonymous. Determinism -- Klappert, Peter. For the poet who said poets are struck by lightning only two or three times -- Cummings, E.E. Nobody loses all the time -- Smith, Harry B. My Angeline -- Anonymous. Poor but honest -- Graham, Virginia. Disillusionment -- Piercy, Marge. Hello up there -- Kennedy, X.J. In a prominent bar in Secaucus one day -- Field, Eugene. A piazza tragedy -- Gilbert, W.S. To the terrestrial globe (by a miserable wretch). Personalities: Lear, Edward. By way of preface -- Eliot, T.S. Lines to Ralph Hodgson, Esqre./Lines for Cuscuscaraway and Mirza Murad Ali Beg -- Morley, Christopher. The gospel of Mr. Pepys -- Bentley, Edmund Clerihew. [Sir Christopher Wren] -- Lehrer, Tom. Alma -- Updike, John. Some Frenchmen -- Facos, James. Fable -- Anonymous. Graffiti -- Hecht, Anthony. Paradise lost, book V, an epitome -- Hollander, John. Heliogabalus/Danish wit -- Naylor, James B(all). Authorship -- Benét, Rosemary and Stephen Vincent. Hernando de Soto, 1499?-1542 -- Starbuck, George. High renaissance -- Baker, Kathleen Leland. The baby Hilary, Sir Edmund. Food and drink: Milligan, Spike. A thousand hairy savages -- Housman, A.E.G.K. Chesterton on his birth -- Anonymous. Miss Fogerty's cake -- Keats, John. Lines on the Mermaid Tavern -- Hoffenstein, Samuel. XIII (from As the crow flies, let him fly) -- Tucker, St. George. from The cynic -- Roethke, Theodore. The Saginaw song -- Piercy, Marge. Attack of the squash people -- Anonymous. Waiter, please -- Hoffmann, Heinrich. The story of Augustus who would not have any soup -- Smith, Sydney. Salad -- Wells, Carolyn. The universal favorite -- McGinley, Phyllis. Notes for a Southern road map -- Coward, Noel. Any part of piggy -- Lyly, John. Oh, for a bowl of fat canary -- Carroll, Lewis. Turtle soup -- Blount, Roy, Jr. Against broccoli -- Mitchell, Adrian. Giving potatoes -- Field, Roswell Martin. A counterblast against garlic -- Anonymous. Cautionary limerick -- Blake, William. The little vagabond -- Johnson, Samuel. "Hermit hoar ..." -- Belloc, Hillaire. On jam -- Young, George W. Lips that touch liquor -- Anonymous. Judged by the company one keeps -- Peacock, Thomas Love. Chorus (from Crotchet castle) -- Ade, George. R-E-M-O-R-S-E -- Turberville, George. Of drunkenness. Occupations and preoccupations: Guiterman, Arthur. Anthologisitics -- Bishop, Morris. The anatomy of humor -- Roethke, Theodore. 1. Pipling (from Three epigrams) -- White, E.B. Critic (from Definitions) -- Paul, Louis. Cynical portraits -- Nash, Ogden. The purist -- Yeats, William Butler. The fiddler of Dooney -- Parker, Dorothy. Bohemia -- Saxe, John Godfrey. The news -- Hiebert, P.G. The farmer and the farmer's wife -- Belloc, Hillaire. Lord Lucky -- Gilbert, W.S. The modern major-general/The family f, ool -- Butler, Samuel. The law -- Lamport, Felicia. Poll star -- Sherwood, Robert E. The old hokum buncombe -- Brougham, Lord. The orator's epitaph -- Cummings, E.E. [A politician is an arse upon] -- Jones, M. Keel. Election reflection -- Cummings, E.E. [Next to of course God] -- Hughes, Langston. What? -- Hardy, Thomas. The ruined maid -- King, Stoddard. Crime at its best -- Anonymous. On a clergyman's horse biting him -- White, E.B. Commuter. Money, money, money: Nemerov, Howard. Reflections on the seizure of the Suez, and on a proposal to line the banks of that canal with billboard advertisements -- Bishop, Morris. Diogenes -- Armour, Richard. Money -- Ciardi, John. Back through the looking glass to the other side -- Bunner, H.C. Behold the deeds! -- Hughes, Langston. Little lyric (of great importance) -- Nemerov, Howard. BOOM! -- Nash, Ogden. Introspective reflection -- Belloc, Hillaire. Fatigue -- Adams, Franklin P. ("F. P.A.") The rich man -- Elliott, Ebenezer. On Communists -- Anonymous. Art -- Clough, Arthur Hugh. Spectator ab extra -- Preston, Keith. The complete cynic -- Anonymous. The advertising agency song -- King, Ben. If I should die -- Smith, Stevie. Correspondence between Mr. Harrison in Newcastle and Mr. Sholto Peach Harrison in Hull -- Anonymous. From a London bookshop -- Field, Eugene. Mr. Billings of Louisville -- Belloc, Hillaire. Lord Finchley -- Bierce, Ambrose. [Don't steal, thou'lt never thus compete] -- Anonymous. Where are you going, my pretty maid -- Wilbur, Richard. A summer morning -- Nash, Ogden. from One from one leaves two. Ports of call: Tibble, Anne. Trials of a tourist -- Lear, Edward. The owl and the pussy cat -- George Gordon, Lord Byron. Written after swimming from Sestos to Abydos/The Lisbon packet -- Bishop, Morris. Public aid for Niagara Falls/Ozymandias revisited -- Newton, Byron Rufus. Owed to New York-1906 -- Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Cologne/On my joyful departure from the same city, etc