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Light Poetry

Lyric and Short Poetic Forms

Light poetry, or light verse, is poetry that attempts to be humorous, typically brief and built on wordplay such as puns, inventive rhyme and heavy alliteration, whether its subject is frivolous or serious. Acclaimed poets including Horace, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and W. H. Auden have written in the form, and nineteenth-century examples include Lord Byron's Beppo and Edward Lear's The Book of Nonsense, which popularized the limerick.

Facts
Notable Example
Edward Lear's The Book of Nonsense 1
Defining Trait
Humorous, usually brief verse built on wordplay 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Light poetry
  • Examples
    a popular and influential example
  • Lead paragraph
    Light poems are usually brief, can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play including puns, adventurous rhyme, and heavy alliteration.
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