"The first light verse I ever heard was alarming, but fortunately I didn't know a word of English at the time, so was not distressed. It was the one that begins 'Rock-a-bye, baby, on the treetop' and ends with the nasty business of the breaking bough hurling baby, cradle and all, down to earth."
So begins Russell Baker's witty introduction to The Norton Book of Light Verse, a collection of over 400 poems that he has selected to delight, amuse, surprise, and sometimes even shock readers. Mr. Baker, who likens this collection to "an amusement park," has chosen the best work of writers—such as E. B. White, Peter DeVries, Edward Lear, and, of course, the prolific Anonymous— who are well known for their light verse, as well as verse by lesser known poets and those like Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Stevie Smith, who are not ordinarily thought of as writing in a "light" vein. Readers will find old favorties such as "Miniver Cheevy" by Edward Arlington Robinson, "Insomnia the Gem of the Ocean" by John Updike, and "You're the Top" by Cole Porter, along with such surprises as Roswell Martin Field's "A Counterblast Against Garlic," John Lyly's "Oh, For a Bowl of Fat Canary," and Emily Dickinson's "To Make a Prairie." The poems, arranged in nineteen thematic sections including Some Fun with the Mother Tongue, Twentieth Century Blues, Only Human, and Life's Losers, form a unique collection reflecting Russell Baker's own sense of humor while honoring the light verse tradition.
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