Poetry expresses a whole variety of moods, from the serious reflection of an elegy to the joy (or heartbreak!) of a love sonnet. But there is one particular style always guaranteed to raise a smile – comic verse. The best known form of comic verse is of course the limerick. Here’s a well-known example:
There was a young woman from Leeds,
Who swallowed a packet of seeds.
In less than an hour
Her ears were in flower
And her hair was covered in weeds!
This is the last of our four poetry quizzes - and indeed the last in our series of eighty-one quizzes on books. I hope you’ve enjoyed and also been informed by this section. And, whichever genre or author you prefer, may we wish you many hours of happy reading!
Here's an example:
"There was an Old Man in a tree,
Who was horribly bored by a Bee;
When they said, 'Does it buzz?'
He replied, 'Yes, it does!'
'It's a regular brute of a Bee!'"
The main theme of the series is mortality and the need to seize the mm oment. An example is these lines from Reveille:
"When the journey's over
There'll be time enough to sleep"