Martin Gardner's Favorite Poetic

A longtime admirer of well crafted prose, word puzzles and clever turns of phrase, Gardner assembles his favorite examples of the lighter side of poetry. Illustrations.

Whether you love poetry or just don't get it, you will love these amusing and sometimes hilarious poetic parodies. A longtime admirer of well-crafted prose, word puzzles, and clever turns of phrase, Martin Gardner has assembled his favorite examples of the lighter side of poetry, many by famous authors in their own right (Robert Sherwood, G. K. Chesterton, A. E. Housman, Bret Harte). You may never again take seriously Edgar Allen Poe's "Annabel Lee" after reading Charles Lummis's "Cannibalee, " or Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar" once you've heard Armand Ringer's "Leaving the Bar." Gardner does us the favor of putting the original poems first, followed by their parodies, thus providing a sampling of some of the best-known poems in English while demonstrating how easily the profound can be made to look ridiculous.