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Tables of Contents for Comic Poems
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Part One: Forms
Shorts
News Item
19
1
Dorothy Parker
`Wig, rouge, honey'
19
1
Lucilius
Their Sex Life
19
1
A. R. Ammons
Epigram VI.57
20
1
Martial
Epigram IX.33
20
1
Boston
20
1
Samuel C. Bushnell
`Diophon'
21
1
Lucilius
`Hermogenes is rather short'
21
1
A Case
Anon
21
1
Twins
22
1
Robert Graves
`Busts and bosoms have I known'
Anon
22
1
`I like a woman built on ample lines'
22
1
Nikarchos
This Englishwoman
22
1
Stevie Smith
Fatigue
23
1
Hilaire Belloc
Variation on Belloc's `Fatigue'
23
1
Wendy Cope
Resume
23
1
Dorothy Parker
`Mean Old Hermon'
24
1
Lucilius
The Hardship of Accounting
24
1
Robert Frost
Epigram
24
1
Matthew Prior
Human Life
25
1
Cherry White
25
1
Dorothy Parker
Some are Born
26
1
Stevie Smith
Common Sense
26
1
Ogden Nash
The Question
26
1
James Beattie
Company
27
1
Les Murray
Samson Agonistes
27
1
Ogden Nash
Palladas
27
1
`Man stole Fire'
`Having slept with a man'
28
1
Prophetic Soul
28
1
Dorothy Parker
Two Cures for Love
28
1
Wendy Cope
`Eutychus the painter'
29
1
Lucilius
Reflection on Ice-Breaking
29
2
Ogden Nash
Genealogical Reflection
29
1
Reminiscent Reflection
30
1
Crossing the Border
30
1
Epigram II.38
31
1
Martial
On Rutt the Judge
31
1
Charles Cotton
Treason
31
1
Sir John Harington
On Certain Ladies
32
1
Alexander Pope
On Taking a Wife
32
1
Thomas Moore
Swans Sing Before They Die
32
1
S. T. Coleridge
Juliet
33
1
Hilaire Belloc
The Reward
33
5
Ogden Nash
Limericks and Clerihews
Relativity
Anon
37
1
Mind and Matter
37
1
Determinism
37
1
`A young schizophrenic named Struther'
38
1
Idealism
38
2
Ronald Knox
A Reply
Anon
38
1
`There was a young lady of Riga'
39
1
`There was an old man of Boulogne'
39
1
`There was an old party of Lyme'
39
1
`When Daddy and Mum got quite plastered'
39
1
Bump!
40
1
Spike Milligan
Drusilla
40
2
Ogden Nash
Edouard
40
1
Arthur
41
1
Benjamin
41
1
Carlotta
41
1
Requiem
42
1
`A Young Person came out of the mists'
42
1
W. H. Auden
`As the poets have mournfully sung'
42
1
`There was an Old Man with a beard'
43
1
Edward Lear
`There was an Old Lady of Chertsey'
43
1
`There was an Old Man whose despair'
43
1
`There was an Old Man who said, ``Hush!''
43
1
Nomenclaturik
44
1
Harry Hearson
Oscar Wilde
45
2
Dorothy Parker
D. G. Rossetti
45
1
Alexandre Dumas and His Son
45
1
George Gissing
46
1
Walter Savage Landor
46
1
From Biography for Beginners: J. S. Mill
47
1
E. C. Bentley
`The intrepid Ricardo'
47
1
` ``No, sir,'' said General Sherman'
47
1
George III
47
1
Adam Smith
47
1
From Academic Graffiti: `Lord Byron'
48
3
W. H. Auden
`Henry Adams'
48
1
`Henry James'
48
1
`When Karl Marx'
48
1
`Cardinal Newman'
48
3
Nonsense and Word-Play
B kw rm
51
1
Euenos
Lapsus Linguae
51
1
Keith Preston
Faults
52
1
Amaru
40-Love
52
1
Roger McGough
Tenuous and Precarious
53
1
Stevie Smith
The Ceiling
54
1
Theodore Roethke
Tarantella
55
1
Hilaire Belloc
`In this mirror'
56
1
Guillaume Apollinaire
No!
57
1
Thomas Hood
A Ternarie of Littles, Upon a Pipkin of Jellie Sent to a Lady
58
1
Robert Herrick
The Carcajou and the Kincajou
59
1
Ogden Nash
The Modern Hiawatha
Anon
59
1
The Mad Gardener's Song
60
2
Lewis Carroll
From the Embassy
62
1
Robert Graves
The Waif
63
1
Walter de La Mare
What the Spider Heard
64
1
Weldon Kees
The Fly
65
1
Ogden Nash
Spring in the Bronx
Anon
65
1
A Little Lamb
65
1
Rillons, Rillettes
66
1
Richard Wilbur
Private Means is Dead
67
1
Stevie Smith
V. B. Nimble, V. B. Quick
68
1
John Updike
Squeeze Play
69
1
Phyllis McGinley
In the Dumps
Anon
69
1
Vendetta
70
1
Walter de la Mare
Jabberwocky
71
1
Lewis Carroll
The Termite
72
3
Ogden Nash
Part Two: Themes
Love and Marriage
Symptom Recital
75
1
Dorothy Parker
For an Amorous Lady
76
1
Theodore Roethke
Take Me in Your Arms, Miss Moneypenny-Wilson
77
2
Patrick Barrington
`The author loving these homely meats'
79
1
John Davies of Hereford
`On sunny days'
80
1
Bhartrhari
`The impudence of some people'
80
1
`While describing to her best friend'
80
1
`He marvelled at her breasts'
80
1
Amaru
Alice is at It Again
81
3
Noel Coward
A True Maid
84
1
Matthew Prior
A Song of a Young Lady to Her Ancient Lover
85
3
John Wilmot
The Old Man's Complaint: By Mr Wells
Unknown
87
1
Always True to You in My Fashion
88
3
Cole Porter
Love Me Little, Love Me Long
91
1
Robert Herrick
Elinor Glyn
Anon
91
1
Fatal Love
92
1
Matthew Prior
One Perfect Rose
93
1
Dorothy Parker
Ich Liebe solche weisse Glieder
94
1
Heinrich Heine
Ending
95
1
Gavin Ewart
The Trouble with Women is Men
96
2
Ogden Nash
A Word to Husbands
98
1
Autumn
98
1
Stevie Smith
St Ives
99
1
Roald Dahl
Hot and Cold
99
1
The Mistake
100
2
Theodore Roethke
Sucking Cider Through a Straw
Anon
101
1
The Newlyweds
102
1
John Updike
On Kant's Definition of Marriage in The Metaphysics of Ethics
103
4
Bertolt Brecht
Some Pains and Pleasures
Spectator ab extra
107
1
A. H. Clough
Recipe for a Salad
108
1
Sydney Smith
Peas
Anon
109
1
The Bun
109
1
Walter de la Mare
Sonnet to Vauxhall
110
1
Thomas Hood
Smelt and Tasted
111
2
W. H. Auden
Heard and Seen
112
1
The `Satire'
113
1
Walter de la Mare
The Comming of Good Luck
113
1
Robert Herrick
Blisse
114
1
Thomas Traherne
Divided Destinies
115
2
Rudyard Kipling
Look for the Silver Lining
117
1
Ogden Nash
Hotel
118
1
Guillaume Apollinaire
Praise is a Mirror
119
1
Charles Dibdin
The Nightmare
120
3
W. S. Gilbert
Complaint to Four Angels
123
2
Ogden Nash
Epigram V.9
125
1
Martial
Epigram IV.70
125
1
I've been to a Marvellous Party
126
4
Noel Coward
The Party Next Door
130
2
Ogden Nash
Evening Musicale
132
1
Phyllis McGinley
Stately as a Galleon
133
2
Joyce Grenfell
A Literary Dinner
135
1
Vladimir Nabokov
Vers de Societe
136
5
Philip Larkin
Characters
How Pleasant to Know Mr Lear
141
2
Edward Lear
Posterity
143
1
Philip Larkin
Henry King
144
1
Hilaire Belloc
The Purist
145
1
Ogden Nash
Upon Clunn
146
2
Robert Herrick
The Tank
148
2
Walter de la Mare
Miss Clegg
149
1
Mad Dogs and Englishmen
150
4
Noel Coward
Lines for Cuscuscaraway and Mirza Murad Ali Beg
154
3
T. S. Eliot
Politics
Yes and No
157
1
Ogden Nash
The Latest Decalogue
158
1
A. H. Clough
I Had Duck-billed Platypus
159
2
Patrick Barrington
In a Copy of More's (or Shaw's or Wells's or Plato's or Anybody's) Utopia
161
1
Max Beerbohm
On a General Election
162
1
Hilaire Belloc
The Solution
162
1
Bertolt Brecht
Low Down Sandcastle Blues
163
1
Les Murray
A Modest Politician
164
1
Hilaire Belloc
Epitaph on a Politician
164
1
Lord Finchley
164
1
The Pacifist
164
1
The World State
165
1
G. K. Chesterton
Lord Lundy
166
4
Hilaire Belloc
There Lived a King
170
2
W. S. Gilbert
The Ewart Organization
172
1
Gavin Ewart
Guns Before Butter
173
1
Bertolt Brecht
High Sugar
174
3
Les Murray
Literature
Bloomsbury Snapshot
177
1
Connie Bensley
Reproof Deserved, or After the Lecture
178
2
John Betjeman
The Black Box
180
1
Gavin Ewart
Cacoethes Scribendi
181
1
Oliver Wendell Holmes
On His Books
181
1
Hilaire Belloc
From The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel
182
2
John Dryden
`You cannot hope to bribe or twist'
184
1
Humbert Wolfe
`A critic is a creature who has views'
184
1
Bhartrhari
On a Lady who P-st at the Tragedy of Cato
185
1
Alexander Pope
Academic
185
1
Theodore Roethke
To Minerva
186
1
Thomas Hood
Philological
186
1
John Updike
The Uncertainty of the Poet
187
4
Wendy Cope
Bestiary
The Pig
Anon
191
1
The Wasp
191
1
Ogden Nash
The Frog Prince
192
2
Stevie Smith
The Frog
194
1
Hilaire Belloc
The Octopus
195
1
Ogden Nash
The Eel
195
1
The Rabbit
Anon
195
1
To a Mouse
196
2
Robert Burns
Mouse
198
1
Guillaume Apollinaire
Carp
198
1
Epigram III.35 (`Instant Fish')
199
1
Martial
To a Fish
199
2
Leigh Hunt
A Fish Answers
200
1
The Python
201
1
Hilaire Belloc
The Cobra
202
1
Ogden Nash
An Appeal to Cats in the Business of Love
202
1
Thomas Flatman
The Blind Sheep
203
1
Randall Jarrell
The Grackle
204
1
Ogden Nash
The Hippopotamus
204
1
The Hippopotamus Song
205
2
Michael Flanders
Mollusc
207
1
Les Murray
Epigram (`I am his Highness' dog')
208
1
Alexander Pope
The Dog
208
1
Ogden Nash
The Cow
208
1
The Louse
209
1
Robert Burns
The Bunyip
210
3
Weldon Kees
Mortality
Opportunity
213
1
Harry Graham
Mr Jones
213
1
L'Enfant glace
213
1
Nothing to Fear
214
1
Kingsley Amis
My Dad was Worried
215
1
Lucilius
Lean Gaius
215
1
To His Skeleton
216
1
Richard Wilbur
Arithmetic on the Frontier
217
2
Rudyard Kipling
Waste
219
1
Harry Graham
Yes, I Know
219
1
Stevie Smith
All Things Pass
219
1
A Toccata of Galuppi's
220
4
Robert Browning
`Give me a doctor'
224
2
W. H. Auden
On Mary Ann
Anon
225
1
On Will Smith
225
1
At Potterne, Wiltshire
225
1
Epigram I.16
226
1
Martial
Epitaph on Charles II
226
40
John Wilmot
Here Lies a Philosopher
266
Charles Dibdin
`The angler rose'
227
1
R. L. Stevenson
Epitaph on an Unfortunate Artist
227
1
Robert Graves
From Tombstones in the Starlight
228
3
Dorothy Parker
A Dentist
Anon
229
1
At Great Torrington, Devon
229
1
At Aberdeen
229
1
Epitaph in St Olave's, Southwark, on Mr Munday
230
1
On a Tired Housewife
230
1
Acknowledgments
231
8
Index of Authors
239