A Few Poems About Dogs

This list of dog poems does have a few big-name figures on it, but many of those big names are better known for other instances of poetry. So, it should be interesting to have a look at some of these poems to see what makes them so special. Let’s dive in with the first of our poems about dogs, and it’s by a rather famous poetic figure.

A Little Dog That Wags His Tail (19th Century) by Emily Dickinson 

A Little Dog That Wags His Tail is a poem that is not solely about dogs but instead makes use of the image of a dog, as well as later images of cats and mice, to draw comparisons between these animals and certain human groups. This is something that is quite commonly seen in many instances of literature that use non-human animals to make any kind of comparison. For instance, this poem shows the simple joy that a dog possesses, and it does not require any kind of complex reasons behind said joy.

You will find many other examples of comparisons of this nature in the literature that use animals because many animals extoll virtues that humans also possess.

Emily Dickinson (1840) by Otis Bullard; Otis Allen Bullard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

To Flush, My Dog (1844) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

To Flush, My Dog is a poem in dedication to a dog. To many of us who have lived alongside dogs and have seen them as friends, companions, and/or members of the family, the reasons for this depiction become obvious. A dog becomes a creature we grow to have immense affection for. When it comes to poems about dogs, this is a phenomenal one for showing this particular idea in action. In addition, in specifically naming the dog, we know that this is not a dog poem about these animals in general, but rather related to an individual.

This, ironically, can make it far more universal. We may also have a specific dog in mind when we read something like this even though said dog is technically a different one.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (nd); See Page for Author, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A Popular Personage at Home (Between 1865 and 1928) by Thomas Hardy

A Popular Personage at Home is a great example of the kinds of poems about dogs that can be produced because it is not simply about a dog, but rather from the perspective of a dog. This dog is named Wessex, and the entire poem relates some of his thoughts about his place in the world. He does not know how he came to guard this house, but that has been his duty for a long time, and it is one that he has taken to for many years.

He also thinks about the humans that he allows to “live here with me”, which shows how the perspective of humans and those of animals can differ from one another.

Thomas Hardy (1923) by Reginald Grenville Eves; Reginald Grenville Eves, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Tray (1879) by Robert Browning

Tray is a poem about heroism. When we think of texts that celebrate heroic acts, we tend to think of a very specific type, and this poem knows that. The poem uses the imagery of grand knights but juxtaposes that against a dog. In this narrative instance of famous dog poetry, the text depicts a child who has fallen into a stream and needs to be rescued, but no humans do so. Instead, a dog, who has no thoughts of heroism, jumps in to rescue the child.

The poem allows us to examine the anthropocentric mindset that we usually have with regard to the idea of heroism and how non-humans can also be heroic.

Robert Browning (1858) by Michele Gordigiani; Michele Gordigiani, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

How a Puppy Grows (Between 1881 and 1958) by Leroy F. Jackson

How a Puppy Grows is a poem intended for children, and it has a very simple topic that it explores, and that is the growth of a puppy. It humorously discusses how a puppy grows by focusing on the various parts of the animal’s body, such as the tail, nose, and tummy. The poem does not have some deeper meaning but is instead written to be purely enjoyable. And who among us does not simply love a puppy?

So, perhaps there does not need to be anything deeper than simply knowing that this creature will grow and become an adult in time.

Illustration from The Peter Patter Book: Rhymes for Children (1918) by Leroy F. Jackson; Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The Power of the Dog (1922) by Rudyard Kipling

The Power of the Dog is probably one of the best-known poems about dogs as it was written by one of the most famous colonial writers of the early 20^th century. This poem is an exploration of the relationship that exists between humans and dogs, and so it is not necessarily unique among dog poems. However, the poem does discuss the way in which dogs do not live all that long and that despite such a short length of time spent in this world, they can fill it with such immense joy while they are alive.

And then, of course, they can fill it with sadness after they have passed.

Rudyard Kipling (1891) by John Collier; John Collier, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Dog (Between 1931 and 1971) by Ogden Nash

The Dog is a simple poem that explores the affection of dogs. It states that they are “full of love”, and that the most loving dog is also a wet dog. This poem is not intended to be all that serious.

The short duration, as well as the use of the made-up term “lovingest”, makes this a great instance of children’s poetry too.

Ogden Nash (1949); Los Angeles Daily News, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dog (1958) by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Dog is a poem that is, in the tradition of poems about dogs, a little different. It does indeed focus on a dog’s perspective, but this perspective is used to explore much of the human world from an investigative and darker perspective. For instance, the dog wanders the streets and sees drunk humans, cats, cops, and various other parts of humanity.

He has no use for any of these things as humans do and so he continues to wander.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (2012) by Christopher Michel; Cmichel67, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A Dog Has Died (1974) by Pablo Neruda

A Dog Has Died is probably one of the most famous dog poetry examples as it is written by one of the most notable poets of the late 20th century. In terms of poems about dogs, the examination of the death of a dog is not unusual. We are all destined to eventually die, and dogs are no different, and this poem serves as an elegy for a dog who has died.

The poem celebrates the life of this dog while exploring ideas around companionship and the afterlife.

Portrait of Pablo Neruda (1967) by Annemarie Heinrich; Annemarie Heinrich (1912-2005), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Dog and Wolf (20th Century) by Marmaduke Park

The Dog and Wolf is a poem about civilization versus the natural world, and it can be seen as an example of the poems about dogs listed above, but it is also a wolf poem. The text depicts a conversation between a wolf and a dog. The wolf has to struggle to survive while the dog is provided with food and cared for. The wolf eventually realizes that this comfort comes at the cost of freedom though. This is a great instance of dog poetry because it examines the existence of dogs themselves rather than simply their existence in relation to humans, such as those other dog poems that explore how dogs can be heroic or have love for the humans they live beside.

This indicates the end of our list of dog poems. There are many other examples of poems about dogs out there, but this series of ten instances should be enough to tide you over for a while. However, if you seek other examples of famous dog poetry, you may need to keep looking on your own to see what you can find, but there certainly are many examples out there that are worth reading!

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are Poems About Dogs?

In short, poems about dogs are simply poems that involve dogs in some or another way. A dog poem does not need to be about a specific dog or anything specific about a dog. This deliberate broadness means that a poem about a dog could be a sonnet, an elegy, or any other poetic form. The sky’s the limit with regard to what can be a poem about dogs.

What Are the Characteristics of Dog Poems?

When it comes to poems about dogs, there are no real rules or characteristics at play. For instance, a poem that eulogizes a dead dog will likely make use of characteristics in keeping with the tradition of elegies whereas a limerick about a dog will likely be humorous. So, it depends entirely on the poem in question, and all that unifies poems about dogs is that they are about dogs.

What Are Some of the Most Famous Dog Poetry?

There are quite a few instances of famous dog poetry, but many are simply famous because of who wrote them. A few examples include Tray (1879) by Robert Browning, The Power of the Dog (1922) by Rudyard Kipling, and Dog (1958) by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. However, there are many other examples of poems about dogs out in the world.

The post Poems About Dogs – Celebrating Man’s Best Friend% first appeared on Art in Context.

A Look at Beat Poetry

There have been many movements in literature, but few have been as influential on present-day literature as the work of the Beat Poets. This group would serve not only as an inspiration through their writing but also through the lives that they led. They worked to reject tradition and embrace non-conformity, creativity, and a focus on the individual. This article is all about them, but before we do get into their history for a while, let’s first see a summary.

Summary of Beat Poetry

When it comes to Beat poetry, there are a few things that need to be explored. For instance, what is Beat poetry in the first place? These sorts of questions will be answered in more depth after this particular section, but if you need a taster, then this should be beneficial to you:

• Beat poetry originated in the 1950s. The Beat Movement lasted for some time, but its heyday peaked throughout the 1950s and 1960s and burned hard and fast. Many members of the Beats had also been raised in privilege and saw the movement as a way of rebelling against it.
• Beat poetry was focused on non-conformity. While this is far from the only aspect of Beat poetry, it is a major part of it. Their work would often explore very taboo topics for the time, such as sexuality, drug use, and radical individualism. These figures became icons of a generation.
• The Beat Poets did not only write poetry. While we typically refer to this group as the “Beat Poets”, they did not solely produce poetry. One of the most famous texts from the movement was Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel On the Road. However, they are still often known as the Beat Poets.

This has been a brief summary of the things to come. Many more elements concern the Beat Generation, but a summary is hardly enough to cover it all.

So, if this summary has been a good means of whetting your appetite, you should head into the next section.

The History of Beat Poetry

Every poetic movement has some kind of a cause, something that leads it to be born, and in the case of Beat poetry, that thing was the culture of the United States in the aftermath of the Second World War. After the war, there was an immediate pivot toward a new war, the Cold War. This war would lead to a major change in the culture of the country over the next few decades. The 1950s were particularly known for being a rather terrifying period to live through in the country because it was the time of nuclear terror. Everyone was afraid of what the communists would do, and the government and media made sure to reinforce this threat. This then led to a very particular form of conformist culture in which being a proud American was the standard.

William S. Burroughs (1974) by Craig Copetas; Terry O’Neil, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Patriotism and adhering to the status quo became the norm, and out of that arose a few figures in the 1950s who would come to be known as the Beat Generation. These young writers would rebel against the conformity of society at the time and would instead embrace concepts such as radical individualism, sexual liberation, spontaneity, and freedom of choice. These Beat Poets were generally congregated in several major areas, such as the North Beach district in San Francisco and the Greenwich Village district in New York City.

These figures would call themselves the “beats” because it was meant to be a play on the idea of being weary. Many others, generally those who were in opposition to them, would instead use the term “beatnik” to describe them. However, they would continue with their more liberated lifestyles, which involved drug use, sexual freedom, and constant creativity. Some of the major figures who arose during the Beat Movement were Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William S. Burroughs. However, many others would also call themselves Beat Poets even if they were not part of the major figures.

These Beat Poets would attempt to exemplify this freeform lifestyle and would focus on living their lives as genuinely as possible.

There was also a strong push toward a more progressive existence, and this was one of the many things that put them at odds with the highly conservative existence of American society at the time. This was also one of the reasons that after the publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, which is seen as the most important poetic text of the Beat Movement, it faced legal pushback and was even brought into an obscenity trial because of its frank depictions of drug use and homosexual sex.

During the 1960s, the relevance of the Beat Poets and Beat poetry in general would start to fade, but it did have a strong influence on the movements that would grow after it. For instance, the counter-cultural movements of the 1960s would take inspiration from the freedom-oriented lifestyles of the Beats. And while the movement is now dead, and so are the majority of the Beat Poets, their work still remains and continues to influence many around the world.

The Characteristics of Beat Poetry

When it comes to an understanding of Beat poetry, you need to keep in mind that their central idea was non-conformity. The Beat Poets wanted to go against what had come to be seen as normal and ordinary, and they would often push back on the conservative society of the United States at the time. This meant that their poetry would often focus on content that was deliberately non-conformist.

This can be seen in the way that many examples of Beat poetry would explore and discuss topics like drug use and sexuality with a frankness that was not seen in more traditional literature of the time. This is one of the major elements of Beat poetry that needs to be taken into account more so than necessarily the formal aspects of this movement’s chosen way of writing poetry.

The rebellious nature of Beat poetry did also influence the ways in which they wrote though. Many of the Beats were also involved in jazz. This musical influence would lead to the development of poetry that was generally more rhythmic in its presentation. It would often make use of a more chaotic style, and there was often a focus on spontaneity in their work.

Other than this, you can often find elements of Eastern religions in the work of the Beat Poets. Many took inspiration from things like Zen Buddhism to inform a way of living that was counter to the way that American society was structured. This would also be seen in the Beats’ general rejection of American values related to capitalism and elitism. They wanted to live their lives as genuinely as possible, and this translated into the way that they composed their poetry too.

The Goals of the Beat Poets

When we examine the work of the Beat Poets, we see that the movement was not solely about artistic creation. There was a very real political goal to the poetry that they produced. This poetry was a direct rejection of the kind of society that birthed the Beat Poets in the first place. Many of the earliest and most important figures in the Beat Generation grew up in the post-World War II period and were subjected to intense levels of patriotism and anti-left-wing propaganda because of its relation to communism. So, when these young writers grew up and went to university, they discovered that there was another way to live their lives. These early groups would become the basis for the Beats in general.

They would then have certain goals in mind when it came to the poetry that they wrote.

They wished to express themselves in a way that had not been allowed in more traditional society. They wanted to experiment with what all life had to offer, such as sex and drugs, and they wanted to write about these experiences too. These sorts of aspects of life have always existed, but it has traditionally been frowned upon to even consider writing about anything like this. The Beat Poets wanted to show the authenticity of life, and they wanted to be rebels against a society that wanted them to remain as conformist as possible. These more liberationist goals would lead to legal troubles for many of the Beat Poets, and a number of them died quite young because of the lifestyles that they led, such as Jack Kerouac’s heavy drinking. However, the spirit of their work would forever remain in the literature that they produced.

A Few Beat Poetry Examples

To understand and answer questions like, “who were the Beat Poets?”, you need to have a look at the kind of work that they produced. While there were also other projects produced by the Beat Poets, such as novels and visual art, there is often an association with poetry. They are also often referred to as the Beat Generation, but that poet moniker has managed to stick around for a very long time. To understand this movement, let’s get started and take a gander at the kind of work that these figures poured their hearts and souls into.

Howl (1956) by Allen Ginsberg

Howl is often considered to be an exemplary example of Beat poetry. It was written by one of the most integral members of the movement, and it came to be seen as one of the greatest poems of the mid-20^th century period in poetry. The poem is a lengthy text that explores a variety of topics, such as spirituality, mental health, sexual liberation, and numerous instances of social critique. One of the central aspects of Beat poetry in general, and this poem in particular, was the frankness with which it discussed a variety of personal experiences, such as the homosexual relationships that Ginsberg took part in (which was still very much frowned upon at the time, and it was one of the central reasons for an obscenity trial that was brought against him), his drug use, and personal struggles in life.

The poem would go on to become a battle cry for the non-conformists of the period.

Allen Ginsberg (1979) by Michiel Hendryckx; Michiel Hendryckx, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A Coney Island of the Mind, 8 (1958) by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

A Coney Island of the Mind, 8 is a notable poem from one of the most important writers in the Beat Generation. This example of Beat poetry was all about a singular moment within the world. In this case, it showed one moment in Golden Gate Park and what all occurred within that short period of time. There are people going about their lives, musicians, those eating oranges. This is the kind of poetry that would become common in the world of the Beat Poets because it was a perfect encapsulation of spontaneous creativity.

Was there some deeper reason that this singular moment was taken as one in particular or are all moments worth recording in our world?

Lawrence Ferlinghetti at Caffe Trieste (2012) by Christopher Michel; Cmichel67, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961) by Amiri Baraka

Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note is a poem that explores the concept of suicide, as the title would suggest. In this poem, the speaker discusses the feelings of a suicidal character who is currently experiencing existential despair. They are thinking about the difficulties of their life, such as loneliness and depression. However, the poem should also be understood within its broader context. The reason is that this particular poem serves as the preface to a larger collection, and so this poem can be seen as setting the general mood for what is to come in the following pages.

Making use of a poem in this way gives it a different kind of weight than if it was entirely on its own and understood in that sense.

Amiri Baraka addressing the Malcom X Festival in San Antonio Park, Oakland, California (2007); David Sasaki from San Diego, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The American Way (1961) by Gregory Corso

The American Way is a poem that serves as a powerful critique of American culture and society. The poem explores a number of different aspects of the United States, such as the use of religion as a means of commodification. The poem, as a whole, is highly critical of the conformist nature of the country, the way in which authenticity has become eroded over time as consumerism has taken the place of genuine symbols of human civilization, and the lack of individualism that is allowed to take place in American society.

The poem certainly comes from a particular period, but the critiques that it presents are still, in many ways, found in contemporary society, except that they have often spread far outside of the borders of the United States alone.

Song for Baby-O, Unborn (1990) by Diane Di Prima

Song for Baby-O, Unborn is a poem that is addressed to an unborn child, and so it can be seen as reflecting a parental perspective. The poem explores ideas related to parenthood, such as learning to be tender with one’s child and an awareness of the difficulties that this child will face if they are to be born. Poems of this nature show the more uncompromising perspective of the Beat Poets in that they understood that even those who are unborn will eventually find themselves in our world, and there are many difficulties and challenges to be found in our reality.

The Beat Generation has remained one of the most influential of all the countercultural movements in the 20th century, and, hopefully, this article has managed to elucidate the question: what is the Beat Movement? We spent our time having a look over the history of Beat poetry, the kinds of characteristics that it was known for, the goals of those who considered themselves part of the Beat Poets, and a bunch of Beat poetry examples to go over. However, there is still much to be learned from Beat poetry, and I would recommend reading more than what was only discussed here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Beat Poetry?

Beat poetry is a term that refers to the work produced by the Beat Generation. This 1950s and 1960s group was made up of several prominent figures and far more lesser-known individuals who were influenced by the work of the Beats. While the inspiration that was derived from Beat poetry has persisted into the present day, the actual era of Beat poetry predominantly came to an end during the 1960s.

What Are the Characteristics of Beat Poetry?

Some of the prominent characteristics of Beat poetry were elements such as rebellious language, the use of obscenities, the exploration of sexuality, the rejection of societal norms, and the adoption of musical elements, especially from jazz. Their work attempted to be more rhythmic, anti-authority, and would challenge the status quo. Beat poetry has remained influential to this day thanks to these elements.

Who Were the Beat Poets?

The Beat Poets were all members of the Beat Generation. These figures were part of a countercultural movement that developed through the 1950s and 1960s. Prominent members included figures like Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William S. Burroughs. These writers would challenge the status quo of literature and rebelled against the kind of literary output that had come to be expected. They were considered to be rebels, and many more traditional writers were against them at the time.

What Is the Beat Movement?

The Beat Movement was a countercultural movement that originated in the United States. This group, known as the Beat Generation, were those who wished to work against the general conventions of the society in which they were raised. They would do this by taking from jazz culture, altering their dress to fly in the face of convention, and would engage in behaviors deemed incorrect by mainstream society, such as drug use. This movement was known for its defiance of societal norms.

What Are Some Examples of Beat Poetry?

There are some fantastic examples of Beat poetry, and some of the most famous include works such as Howl (1956) by Allen Ginsberg, A Coney Island of the Mind, 8 (1958) by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and The American Way (1961) by Gregory Corso. The Beat Poets did write a lot more than this though, and there are novels and examples of visual artistry that also trace their lineage through the Beat Generation.

The post Beat Poetry – Non-Conformity in the World of Poems% first appeared on Art in Context.

A Look at Protest Poetry

When we think of poetry, many of us want to think of lovely things, but reality is often not all that lovely. It may be nice to write about daffodils or more universal concepts like love and death, but sometimes, we need to be specified. Sometimes we need to use poetry to scream about the hardships and injustices in the world. When colonized people are fighting against their oppressors, they do not have time for daffodils, and they will instead write about their direct experiences. This is what we will examine today.

Summary of Protest Poetry

We should all love a good summary. I certainly do! I have made use of summaries for years because students can learn a lot from them, and my old life as an English and literature teacher meant that I was handing these things out all the time. So, let’s keep that train going and jump into a good summary:

• Protest poetry is aimed at societal issues. The primary idea behind the protest poem is that it is directed at something very real. For instance, a protest poem will rail against police brutality, colonialism, gender-based violence, and so on.
• Protest poetry is usually written by marginalized groups. While anyone can theoretically write protest poetry, it is usually those affected by what they write who tend to write protest poems. Oppressed groups usually have more to say about oppression than those who are part of the oppressor group.
• Protest poetry is generally confrontational. The purpose of protest poetry, in many ways, is to force people to understand why the topic of the poem is important. This is generally best done by being very confrontational, provocative, and emotional.

This little summary has not given all that much information, but it has given at least some. There will be more to discuss in the sections below. We will even look at the kind of work that is produced by poets as diverse as Chris van Wyk, Maya Angelou, and Yuki Jackson.

There is much still to discuss.

The Purpose of Protest Poetry

While poetry can be about all manner of things, protest poetry generally has a very definitive aim. The purpose of protest poetry is to protest against whatever is the topic of the poem in question. This can mean showing and exploring injustices in the world, calling for empathy from those who are not affected by the things being discussed, vying for change, or simply airing out frustrations so that they can be understood on an emotional level.

Protest poems can be about anything, but those things are tangible realities for those who have experienced what is discussed. This is why many poets who have written protest poetry are those who have been subject to injustices. For instance, colonized people, those who fought against American segregation or South African Apartheid, women who have experienced gender-based violence, and so on. These poems want the reader to know and understand these concepts. There is no reason to flee from the reality of the situation because that will not fix anything.

The purpose of protest poetry, in many ways, is to make protest poetry redundant. No one wants to write protest poetry; they write protest poems because they need to. Protest poetry recounts the realities that people face, and the reality of the world can often be an immensely horrible thing. You cannot expect someone who has seen their friends killed by an oppressive system to want to write about daffodils.

They can write about daffodils when their friends have stopped being shot.

The Characteristics of Protest Poetry

Protest poetry, because of its particular goals, is usually oriented around a very specific kind of structure. One of the common elements you will find in many protest poems is the use of provocative language. Protest poems do not want to beat around the bush. If you want to enact change, you cannot say things in a polite way, you need to scream them. You need to be emotional and angry. These are the sorts of things you will generally find in examples of protest poetry.

However, it is worth noting that there are no types of poems that need to be used in protest poetry. For instance, a protest poem could make use of a free verse structure or a sonnet. It does not actually matter, and there can be the use of rhyme and meter, or not. There are no rules with regard to these elements of poetry when it comes to protest poetry in particular.

The Use of Protest Poetry in Music

Music and poetry have long had connections to one another, and this is often because the earliest poetry was generally set to music and there is significant argument that could be made that all lyric-based music does make use of poetry. However, what about on a more specific level when it comes to protest poetry and music? Well, in that case, we can see many examples of overlap.

When it comes to the lyrics that are used in examples of protest music, there are definitive uses of poetic ideas and techniques.

For instance, lyrics often make use of poetic elements like rhyme and meter. A common place for contemporary protest music can be found in rap music, and rap makes use of complex rhyme and meter far more than most other forms of lyric-based music. We can see that protest poetry and protest music tend to have the same aims. They are both trying to raise awareness of injustices, fight against them, and encourage change. The purpose of the poets and the musicians is one and the same. An anti-war poet and an anti-war musician are arguing against the same thing, after all.

A Few Protest Poem Examples

There are so many different protest poems in the world and we’ll just check out a few of them. These poems are little more than a tiny subset of the kinds of poems that can be found in the world because all over the world, we can find those who have made use of poetry to stand against some of the injustices of the world, such as Maya Angelou from the 1960s until the 2000s, or the work of contemporaries like Yuki Jackson and her focus on empowerment. There are many all over the world who have embraced protest poetry in so many different ways.

In detention (1980) by Chris van Wyk

In detention is likely one of the most famous anti-Apartheid protest poems. This particular poem makes use of a repetitive structure in which various excuses for why prisoners have died are reused over and over again in increasingly ridiculous combinations. The purpose of the poem was to highlight the absurdity of the ways that political prisoners kept “having accidents” while in police custody in the country.

Poems like this can serve as a means of emphasizing specific injustices in the world that need to be stopped.

Caged Bird (1983) by Maya Angelou

Caged Bird is likely one of the most famous American protest poems. In this case, it makes use of the metaphor of a bird that has been caged. The bird is representative of oppressed and marginalized people, and the poem explores the way in which the bird, while caged in its circumstances, can still sing. The song is about the dream of freedom and the desire for all to change.

The bird’s song can serve as a rallying cry to lead to the kinds of changes that would lead to the bird, and all other birds, no longer being caged.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Maya Angelou; Photo on the jacket by Henry MonroeJacket design by Janet Halverson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I look at the world (2009) by Langston Hughes

I look at the world is a poem that angrily explores the way that African American people had been forced to look at the world. The poem opens with this kind of observation, that there is a way that black Americans were forced into situations in which they had less than their white counterparts. However, the later parts of the poem serve as a call to action. The poem wants this reality to change. It wishes to protest against the injustices of the world and to force them to change.

Langston Hughes (1922); Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Protest poetry has been around for a long time and there are numerous ways that it can be classified. For instance, protest poems can be about any number of topics that are worth protesting against, and any poem that has fought against injustice could be seen as a kind of protest poem. This article has attempted to explore this broad category in some level of depth, and, hopefully, through the exploration of the purpose, characteristics, and examples of protest poems, a good understanding has been reached. However, when reading protest poems, always remember to look at the societal context that gave birth to said example of protest poetry.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Protest Poetry?

Protest poetry is a relatively broad poetic category that can incorporate many other poetic forms into itself. The primary idea behind protest poetry is that it is focused on protesting real-world issues. This can mean that it argues against injustices in the world, attempts to elicit empathy for wrongs that have been committed, encourages others to fight for what is right, and so on. The main thrust of protest poetry is that it is, as the name suggests, protesting against something in society.

What Are the Characteristics of Protest Poetry?

When it comes to the styles that are commonly adopted in protest poetry, there are no real rules. For instance, you can use a sonnet or anything else if you like. However, protest poems often make use of provocative language, simple delivery, emotionality, and so on. They do not want to be analyzed to find the meaning buried within – they want to be understood. The point is for people to know what is being protested against.

Which Groups Usually Write Protest Poetry?

Anyone can write protest poetry, but those who typically write this kind of poetry can be those from marginalized groups, such as African American poets before, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement who wrote to protest against the injustices committed against black Americans, or feminist poets who write to strike back against patriarchal beliefs or violence against women. There is not a group that is excluded from writing protest poetry, but those who have privilege and nothing to protest against are not usually those who write protest poems.

What Are Some Examples of Protest Poems?

Examples of protest poems can be found all over the world, and they will all explore different topics. Some famous examples include In detention (1980) by Chris van Wyk, Caged Bird (1983) by Maya Angelou, and I look at the world (2009) by Langston Hughes. These poems are hardly indicative of the whole that is protest poetry, but they should be a good, generalized overview. There’s far more out there to find if you are interested in protest poems.

How Is Protest Poetry Used in Music?

There has been a significant influence of protest poetry on music. There are many songs by many musicians that have used protest in some way or another. For instance, N.W.A. has protested against police brutality, Guns ‘n Roses have protested against war, and so on. The use of emotionality, a desire to educate about the issues at hand, and a push for resistance have all formed part of the protest songs that have been inspired by the works of earlier protest poets.

The post Protest Poetry – The Characteristics of Social Activism Prose% first appeared on Art in Context.

A Look at Denotation in Poetry

The denotation in poetry is a very important part of poetry. However, it is also immensely obvious and simple. In very simple terms, it refers to the dictionary definition of a word. However, we will look at this in more detail below. The first of those sections will be a recap of things to come.

Summary of Denotation in Poetry

Summaries are useful things. I have used them in teaching for years now, and they also serve as a fantastic jumping-off point for deeper discussion. When you understand the basics, you can dive in far more deeply. So, that’s the plan right now, let’s see some of those basics:

• Denotation in poetry refers to the dictionary definition of a word. This is the basic understanding of a word, such as a rat being an animal and a toaster being a kitchen appliance.
• Denotation in poetry is the opposite of connotation. While the denotation is the dictionary definition, the connotation is more what it means to us. A rat may be an animal, but they can often represent disease or dirtiness to us. The connotation and denotation are connected to one another.
• Denotation in poetry can be found in all poetry. It’s actually more accurate to say that denotation is found in all languages because all words have dictionary definitions, but we can choose to use them in a variety of ways. We can’t just use words for things that they have no connection to. If you called a phone a water bottle, people would be confused.

I have provided this brief summary above, but the summarized form of denotation in poetry in particular is probably all you actually need. Denotation is a very simple idea. However, we are going to head into more depth below.

So if you want some further understanding when it comes to denotation in poetry, keep reading!

A Definition of Denotation in Poetry

Let’s keep this simple. Why? Well, because denotation in poetry is very simple. It refers to the dictionary definition of a word. What is a pillow? It’s a thing you put on a bed and have against your head. What is a plant? A thing with roots that grows and feeds off photosynthesis and water. And so on. It is exactly what the word itself means, and this is also why we contrast it against connotation.

The Difference Between Connotation and Denotation in Poetry

In the last section, I used the example of a pillow and a plant. When it comes to the denotation of these terms, they are a type of cushion and a living organism that is green. However, what do they represent to us? A pillow can mean comfort, sleep, joy, or even sex. What about a plant? Well, it represents nature, beauty, growth, and so on.

While the denotation is the dictionary definition, the connotation is what it means on a deeper and more cultural and personal level.

We cannot separate the denotation and connotation from one another. They are intrinsically connected to one another. In literary analysis, we usually focus on the connotation though. This is because we want to interrogate the cultural meanings of something rather than what it means in a dictionary. This doesn’t make it any less important, it just means that we don’t really pay much attention to it because it doesn’t need us to do so.

The Uses of Denotation in Poetry

Denotation, for all the derision that I may have laid throughout this article, is actually very important. We need to have a dictionary definition of every word because otherwise, language would just be a bunch of noises. In ordinary communication, the denotative meaning is generally favored because when I say that I want to go to the shops, I don’t want to have a discussion about what I mean by that. I expect you to know that I want to buy a pie!

Anyway, while the connotation of terms is generally seen as more important in poetic language, the denotation is integral. When we read something about a dog, we may see that dog as representing loyalty or love or any other myriad of meanings, but we do need to know that it is a dog. We need to be able to trust that language has certain semi-stable characteristics like this. Over thousands of years, the word “dog” will likely be erased and replaced with some other word, but we need to know what it denotes, and what it actually means on a basic level.

Without the denotation, there can be no connotation.

We can also, of course, use the denotation to explore contrasts between the denotative and connotative meanings, transform them into a metaphor or symbol, or even ensure very precise language usage. The denotation is integral even if it is not really spoken about when it comes to literary analysis. We’re usually more focused on the connotations, but always remember that the denotation is constantly under the surface.

A Few Denotation Examples

The denotation is a very easy thing to understand, but to hammer it home a bit, let’s look at a few denotation examples. These are going to be immensely obvious, but the denotation in poetry, and in any other text, is fundamentally obvious seeing as it’s just the dictionary definition of a word.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1815) by William Wordsworth

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud is a poem that, like all others, makes use of denotation. In this case, we can look at the direct meaning behind something that is given metaphorical weight through its connotation. It’s quite simple to identify the denotation examples in a text because they are surface-level. So, this poem makes use of daffodils. The daffodils, in a metaphorical sense, come to be a representation of nature itself. However, from a denotation perspective… they are flowers.

That is the denotative meaning of daffodils.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1815) by William Wordsworth; © The British Library Board, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Raven (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe

The Raven is, like the poem above, one that makes use of denotation and connotation. From a connotation perspective, the raven that features in the narrative poem comes to represent a variety of things, such as grief and loss. However, if we want to know what the denoted meaning of a raven is, well, it’s a bird. That is what a raven is.

There is not much else to say when it comes to denotation examples as it’s just what the thing is!

The Raven (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe; Edgar Allan Poe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Waiting for the Barbarians (1904) by C.P. Cavafy 

Waiting for the Barbarians is the last poem we will use to beat this idea over your head with. The barbarians, from a connotation perspective, represent a number of things. They represent a threat, an unknown, a revolutionary force, but when it comes to seeing them as a denotation example, they are barbarians. This is an old term that has been used to refer to many different groups, but seeing as this poem is set in Rome, we could see it as having that definition, which essentially referred to any non-Roman or Greek person because everyone else was “uncivilized” in their opinion.

C.P. Cavafy (before 1933); Unknown photographer (signed: Pacino), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The final denotation example should be enough to explain why the concept of the denotation in poetry is rather simple to explore. It is just the dictionary definition meaning of a thing. However, we have spent this article looking at the idea of denotation in poetry, how it differs from connotation, how it can be used, and a few denotation examples. The concept of denotation is a simple one, and so, hopefully, this article has explained it to the point where it is nice and easy to understand!

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Denotation in Poetry?

Denotation in poetry refers to the meaning of a word in a poem. However, it is distinct from the connotation. Where the connotation refers to what a word represents to us, such as a rose representing love, the denotation refers to the actual dictionary definition of the word in question. So, a rose doesn’t denote love. It denotes a flower. It is a type of flower. Any other associations it might have are connotations.

What Are the Uses of Denotation in Poetry?

The denotation can be found in every single word seeing as every word has a dictionary meaning. We use these words with denoted meaning because otherwise, it would be impossible to understand language at all. We cannot use the word dog and expect someone to just know that we actually mean cow. This allows language to remain grounded, and connotations can arise from denotation.

What Are Some Denotation Examples in Poetry?

There are denotation examples throughout poetry because every word has a denoted meaning. Take I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1815) by William Wordsworth as an example. The daffodils in the poem connote a sense of the natural world and beauty, but when we’re looking at it from a denoted perspective, it’s just a flower. The same with the eponymous raven in The Raven (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe, which is a bird, or the barbarian people in Waiting for the Barbarians (1904) by C.P. Cavafy. The dictionary meaning is the denoted meaning.  

The post Denotation in Poetry – The Role of Definitions in Prose% first appeared on Art in Context.

A Few Funny Poems

We all approach humor in a different way, and humans have also been telling jokes for a very long time. There are jokes from ancient times, but those are only the jokes that managed to be recorded. There are many more jokes and it’s even possible that the most primitive of human origins when we were little more than cavemen had their own humor, and as long as we have been recording things through written language, we have also recorded humor.

Drawing (1901) by E. E. Cummings; Massachusetts Historical Society, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

For instance, there are comedic dramas from ancient Greece, and, in English, the works of Shakespeare are often filled with humor. This doesn’t indicate that any of these examples are actually funny, but they are still jokes. Today, the goal is not to make you laugh but to instead highlight some of the humorous poems that have been produced over the centuries. The earliest poem I listed here is from 1846, but funny poems do predate even that. However, these 15 poems should be a good place to start on your own journey to find some funny poems worth checking out.

So, with some of that waffling out of the way, I say we jump on in and see what kinds of poems we can find, explore, and celebrate!

There was an Old Man with a Beard (1846) by Edward Lear

There was an Old Man with a Beard is a fantastic example of a funny poem to start things off with because it comes from one of the great popularizers of the limerick. This five-line poetic structure has always been tailored for jokes because of its rhyme scheme that perfectly allows for the last line to be a punchline. In this case, the poem is aimed at kids. The first four lines describe how a bunch of birds have settled into this old man’s big beard, and the last line proclaims that they’ve all built nests in there!

This is the kind of nonsense that can often be expected of limericks in particular, but it’s also what makes the format so great for funny poems.

There was an Old Man with a Beard (1846) by Edward Lear; Edward Lear, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Phantasmagoria (1869) by Lewis Carroll

Phantasmagoria is a lengthier poem than many of the funny poems in this list, but it is also a poem by one of the most famous nonsense writers, Lewis Carroll of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland fame. This poem is all about a discussion between a ghost and a man, and they are portrayed as being rather similar to one another. Humans have jobs to do, after all, and ghosts are the same, they need to haunt us! It’s almost like something out of Beetlejuice!

It’s a rather fun and delightful example of a humorous poem, and a phenomenal older example to use.

Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll Frontispiece (1898) by Stuart Dodgson Collingwood; Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

My Shadow (1885) by Robert Louis Stevenson

My Shadow is not quite as humorous as some of the other funny poems on this list, but it is an entertaining one, and this is actually a great thing to point out. Not all poems intended to be humorous in some way are necessarily all that funny in a laugh-out-loud sense, as you’ll see with some of the other poems you’ll find in this article, but they are all generally trying to be entertaining. In this poem, the way that it tries to entertain is by having the speaker consider his own shadow. He has no idea what the shadow actually is and has no way to understand it, and so he starts to think of his own explanations for what it is in the first place.

He repeatedly even mocks his own shadow and treats the shadow as someone separate from him.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1893) by Henry Walter Barnett; Henry Walter Barnett, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Monosyllabics (1914) by Laura E. Richards

Monosyllabics is a funny short poem that is all about the form. It only makes use of monosyllabic words, which are words that only have one syllable, and there is constant and consistent rhyme throughout the piece. These factors together, as the poem tells a brief, funny story, contribute to it being a fun and entertaining poem for children.

In addition, the use of only monosyllabic words means that a child who is reading this poem may just learn that big word in the process of reading and enjoying this poem!

Laura E. Richards (1902); Reynolds, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

may i feel said he (1923) by ee cummings

may i feel said he is a rather strange poem, as is rather common when looking over and of the work of ee cummings, and it is mostly humorous because of its use of language. The actual poem can be seen as a rather sad one as it is about a marital affair. However, every line ends with either “he” or “she”, and it becomes confusing to read in a tongue-twister kind of way. This is something you’ll also often find in funny poems because many of them want to play around with language itself.

So, while the content of this poem could be analyzed from a more serious perspective, the format that is used is far sillier and strange.

E.E. Cummings, World-Telegram photo (1953) by Walter Albertin; New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer: Albertin, Walter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Eletelephony (1930) by Laura Elizabeth Richards 

Eletelephony is a poem full of puns. The use of puns is very common in funny poems, as will be seen in some of the other humorous poems in this list, but when it comes to the particular puns that are used in this poem, they have to do with elephants. The entire poem is about an elephant using a telephone, but it does so by continuously creating new puns, such as “telephant” and “elephone” to hammer this home. Furthermore, the poem is a fantastic example of the kind of funny poem that would be perfect for a child as it also incorporates a tongue-twister element to the whole affair. The puns can become difficult to pronounce as they jump from one to the next word that sounds similar but is not quite.

Basically, this poem is just fun to read out loud!

Autograph of Laura E. Richards (1886); Cleveland Public Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The People Upstairs (1932) by Ogden Nash

The People Upstairs is exactly the sort of poem that many would understand despite its highly hyperbolic delivery. When it comes to funny poems, we can often see this sort of thing because exaggerating everything is just part of the game! In this case, the poem describes the annoyance that the speaker feels at having to hear his upstairs neighbors being constantly and consistently noisy and irritating. Many of us may feel the same way if we have noisy neighbors. The poem describes them as being like a bowling alley or playing with pogo sticks.

The poem may not make one laugh out loud, but it certainly would make many of us nod annoyingly at the thought of our own noisy neighbors.

Ogden Nash at Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, California (1949); Los Angeles Daily News, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Messy Room (1974) by Shel Silverstein

Messy Room is one of the great poems by Shel Silverstein. His work was often aimed at children, and so there are many funny poems under his belt. In this case, the poem is all about the thing many children have, a messy room. The poem goes to pains to describe all the ways that the room is messy, such as having clothes thrown about and books that are disorganized, but the punchline comes at the very end when the speaker, who has been describing everything, has to admit that this is his own room.

It’s a cutesy way to end off a short narrative like this, and it likely rings true for many of us out there.

Every Thing On It (2014) by Shel Silverstein; Makia Minich, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Three Little Pigs (1982) by Roald Dahl

The Three Little Pigs is one of the greatest funny poems that Roald Dahl wrote. In his life, he produced several of these retellings of childhood stories, but instead of doing what was expected, these poems were often rather dirty and/or dark. This one is no exception. While we often think of children’s stories and poems as being toned down and more family-friendly, this has not always been the case. There are many examples of stories for kids being very dark, and these poems fit into that category very well.

However, because of their more irreverent tone, they make for some entertaining reading for kids because children don’t just want to read the sanitized stuff, they want the rough stuff!

Roald Dahl (1982) by Hans van Dijk; Hans van Dijk for Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The ABC (Late-20^th Century) by Spike Milligan

The ABC is a great example of a funny poem aimed at kids because it also serves as something of an educational piece. The poem is all about the alphabet. However, rather than being more boring about it and simply listing the ABCs, it instead reimagines the letters of the alphabet as a series of opinionated individuals who are arguing with one another. Many of the letters insult others while making friends with others, and it comes across as a messy and disorganized thing that perfectly encapsulates just how wild and chaotic language can be in general.

Not all funny poems are necessarily the type of funny that involves laughing out loud at what is on display, but rather as something entertaining and fun.

A Conversation With Spike (2019) by John Somerville; Loz Pycock from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

My Doggy Ate My Essay (2009) by Darren Sardelli

My Doggy Ate My Essay is a poem that tells a narrative over the course of several stanzas about one of the oldest silly jokes that children tell, and that is that the dog ate my homework. I am not sure if this is an actual excuse that has ever been used by real human beings, but it certainly has become a mainstay and famed cliché in the media for a very long time. Perhaps there’s a reason for that. However, when it comes to funny poems like this one, the joke often comes from an inversion of expectations, because the speaker claims that while the dog did eat his homework, he also cleaned his bedroom.

The humor comes from this kind of absurdism, and the absurd is often found in humor throughout the world.

The Life Of A Cupcake (2014) by Shelby Greer

The Life Of A Cupcake is a narrative about what the title tells us it is about. Many poems are rather straightforward with what they are about in their titles, and funny poems are especially guilty of this. In this particular poem, the story is both humorous and rather dark. The poem feels like something out of the R-rated animated comedy, Sausage Party, but less R-rated. The poem describes the way in which this cupcake came to be before ending with the cupcake being eaten and dying.

The dark ending definitely puts this particular poem into the realm of dark humor rather than something more light-hearted and aimed at kids.

Doggy Heaven (2014) by Larry Huggins

Doggy Heaven is a great example of the many funny short poems out there. It is only a few lines long, but it provides us with a nice setup and punchline that allows it to function more as a joke than a more standard poem. This is one of the things that funny poems can accomplish when they are made to be short and sweet. In this case, the poem discusses how all dogs go to heaven and they get to run around and play forever, but it ends with the punchline that the reason it’s so grand in doggy heaven is because there are no cats around. This is the kind of humorous poem that would fit in well in a book of jokes for kids.

It may be simple, but its setup and execution are fantastic and it doesn’t need to be any longer than it is.

Don’t Go Into the Library (2017) by Alberto Ríos

Don’t Go Into the Library is a poem that wants to discuss the power of the library as a means of transforming our minds, but it does so through a rather humorous lens. While the poem does have a more serious message behind it, which is that we can use libraries to grow as people, it also uses hyperbolic statements that are reminiscent of many funny poems out there. It acts as if the library is an actual dangerous place that will harm you if given the chance.

This is a way of looking at the library that most of us would never consider in a million years, and so the absurdism of the whole idea allows us to see this as both a joke and a genuine message.

Do You Carrot All For Me? (21^st Century) by Unknown

Do You Carrot All For Me? is a poem of puns. When it comes to funny short poems, there are many ways that a jokey piece of verse could be given to us, and, in this case, it is by having a jokey fruit or vegetable wordplay joke in each and every line. For instance, it states that the speaker’s heart “beets” for poetic object and that they are a “peach”. These little puns are silly, but they are arranged in a row to the point of being ridiculous, and this is common in many funny poems. A variety of poems of this variety will make sure to hit you over and over again with an idea to the point of it being overused, but that is the purpose of something like this. It wants to make you laugh and/or smile and being over-the-top is a surefire way to do just that.

This has only been a list of 15 funny poems. There have been some longer ones and also some funny short poems, and you may not even see any of these poems as funny at all, and you are well within your rights to feel exactly that way. However, the funny poems that have been discussed should be a good introduction for those who are interested in finding some more funny poems out there, because there certainly are far more than only those that have been discussed here. There are funny poems all over the place, and all you need to do is search the internet for them! A useful hint is to look up funny limericks because that’s often where you’ll find some good (and often dirty) gems to read!

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are Funny Poems?

A funny poem is pretty much a poem that is intended to be humorous in some way. We all have different ways in which we look at humor, and what I find funny, you will not necessarily find funny. However, when it comes to funny poems, regardless of whether or not they’re funny short poems or far larger ones, they are all typically unified in their attempt to be entertaining and enjoyable rather than attempting to be deep, introspective, or thought-provoking. Not that humor cannot be these things, but humor does not always want to be these things.

What Are the Common Characteristics of Funny Poems?

The general central premise of funny poems is that they are attempting to be funny and entertaining. The entertainment aspect can mean that attempts at humor can often incorporate other elements that make things fun. For instance, you’ll often find things like rhyme in funny poems, the use of hyperbole, or just plain old nonsense. This is not universal, of course, but when someone tries to be funny, they don’t typically try to be serious at the same time, so silliness is often to be expected.

Are There Specific Categories for Funny Short Poems?

While any poem under the sun can be a funny poem, there are some types of poems that are often known for being humorous. Some of the best-known instances of short funny poems are those that are classified as limericks. These poems are short, at only five lines, and have a distinct rhyme scheme that makes them particularly entertaining, and their very structure includes space for a punchline. All of this indicates just how good the limerick is for humorous poems.

Which Poets Are Known for Writing Funny Poems?

Many poets have tried their hand at writing humorous poems, and some of the best-known poets who have done so include Edward Lear, Shel Silverstein, and Roald Dahl. However, there are also some writers, such as Lewis Carroll, whose entire fiction and poetry career is defined by a dedication to the writing of nonsense that is meant to make children smile. So, there are many writers out there who have specialized in humor.

What Are Some of the Most Famous Funny Poems?

There are so many funny poems out there that are worth a read. Some good examples of funny poems include Eletelephony (1930) by Laura Elizabeth Richards, The Three Little Pigs (1982) by Roald Dahl, and My Doggy Ate My Essay (2009) by Darren Sardelli. However, it should be noted that the poems that have been listed in this answer are fundamentally narrow. There are so many other funny poems out there and one short answer, or even one article with 15 examples, is not enough to cover the full breadth of what all is out there. So, if you want to find some more, you’ll have to do some searching.

The post Funny Poems – A Look at the Lighter Side of Poetry% first appeared on Art in Context.

A Few Poems About Depression

When it comes to poems that tackle concepts like depression, we are going to encounter some rather miserable texts. This is something unavoidable. Not all poems about depression necessarily need to be depressing as a poem about overcoming depression is just as much about depression as one that examines the direct feelings associated with depression, but those below are going to generally be those that are on the more miserable side of things. There is a lot that we can learn from poems of this nature, just like we can learn a lot from every other form of poetry. Poems can show us the inner thinking of a person, and that is a fascinating and exhilarating thing at times. The poems below will not be those that are particularly happy, but they will be poems that are honest in what they want to discuss. Let’s give them a bit of a chance and see what all they want to show us.

At Eternity’s Gate (1890) by Vincent van Gogh; Vincent van Gogh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sonnet 29 (1609) by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 29 is not one of the most famous of all the sonnets that Shakespeare produced in his life, but it does express certain thoughts and feelings that are associated with more depressive states of mind. This poem examines the speaker’s feelings of social isolation, sadness, and disgrace. He sees himself as an outcast who has been ostracized, and while Shakespeare and his contemporaries had no idea what depression was as a mental health condition, they were certainly understanding of the ideas of feelings that we have come to associate with depression. This poem, while not about the mental disorder, may still prove beneficial to those who do feel those thoughts.

It shows us, in its shift near the end, that love can help us to crawl out of this pit of sadness that we might feel when we have become isolated from others.

Sonnet 29 (1609) by William Shakespeare; William Shakespeare, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Holy Sonnet III (1633) by John Donne

Holy Sonnet III is a poem about grief. While depression can be an overwhelming feeling that does not even necessarily require there to be any direct reason for its existence, we can certainly understand why feelings of grief can serve as a trigger for a depressive state of mind. In this particular case, as is the case with many John Donne poems, the text is concerned with religious feelings, and how the inner struggle with regard to an understanding of sin and redemption, can lead us to these kinds of thoughts.

This is not a universally relatable poem as we do not all experience spiritual aspects the same way, and many do not experience them at all, but the feelings that can arise from such thought should be understandable to many.

John Donne (1595) by Unknown Painter; National Portrait Gallery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ode on Melancholy (1820) by John Keats

Ode on Melancholy is a poem by one of the greatest Romantic poets. In this particular case, the text is one that explores melancholy. The title has basically already told us this, and a good little hint from me to you is that when a poem has the name of an emotion in the title. It may very well be about that particular feeling! Anyway, this poem, as an ode, is actually something of an attempt to accept this kind of sadness rather than merely hiding from it. The sadness that we might feel is certainly a terrible and dark thing, but there can be a means of overcoming it for a whole number of different reasons. Melancholy, and other negative emotions, are part of what it means to be human, and having introspective thoughts about the reasons for our sadness can help us to come to terms with such thoughts. In addition, we do not experience these kinds of negative thoughts for no reason whatsoever. There is, in fact, always a reason for such things, even when we have deep medical depression.

It comes from somewhere, and while we may not always be able to identify where it comes from, we certainly can try to understand ourselves to better identify the reasons why we may feel the way that we do.

Ode on Melancholy (1820) by John Keats; John Keats, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

So We’ll Go No More a Roving (1830) by Lord Byron

So We’ll Go No More a Roving can be interpreted as a poem about a number of different things, but it can be useful to see it as a poem about depression. The reason for this is because it describes the kind of feeling that many of us may feel when struggling with depression. The poem is about a sudden stopping of activity. It shows the feelings associated with simply ending their time doing things that they may otherwise enjoy. It shows how some of us who experience depression can suddenly feel that the things we once loved are no longer enjoyable. It becomes tiring to do these things as we get older, and our minds become darker.

It is not a particularly happy poem, but it is one that many with depression may find relates to them on a far deeper level than many of the other poems out there in the world.

Lord Byron (1813) by Richard Westall; Richard Westall, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Rainy Day (1842) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Rainy Day is a poem that fixates on the rain. It describes everything as dreary and cold. There is darkness and unhappiness around. The rain comes to be a metaphor for the feelings that can be seen out the window when the weather is frightful. When we come to see the weather itself as having an emotionality to it, we come to personify what cannot experience emotion. There is nothing depressing about a sunless day in which the sky is full of clouds, but we see the lack of sun as a negative. We see it as sadness incarnate. This is a very fascinating thing that humans tend to do because we like to ascribe human attributes onto non-human things, but it makes sense.

When something makes us feel a certain way, we may just come to ascribe some thought onto it even if that thing does not deserve to be treated in such a way.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1868) by Julia Margaret Cameron; Julia Margaret Cameron, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Shut Out (1862) by Christina Rossetti

Shut Out is a poem that depicts a beautiful garden that has been barred by the one who once frequented that same garden. It shows their sadness in losing what they had once been able to enter. This can be interpreted as a metaphor for what we can lose along the way in our lives.

There are many ways that it can be interpreted, but when we think of it in relation to depression, it rings very true with regard to the kind of emotions felt when losing something that once brought us joy.

Christina Rossetti  (1866) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Alone (1875) by Edgar Allan Poe

Alone is a poem about solitude. This text examines feelings of utter isolation that have continued since childhood, and while isolation cannot solely be seen as the domain of depression, it certainly is the kind of thing that we can associate with the sorts of feelings that can be paired with depression. When it comes to genuine depression, even when we are not alone, we can feel as if we are completely and utterly on our own. No one can understand us or relate in any way, or at least this is the way that we might feel about ourselves.

The work of Edgar Allan Poe has often been a comfort to many who struggle with darker feelings, and this poem is no exception.

Edgar Allan Poe (2021) by Ivan Mosso; Ivan Mosso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It was not Death, for I stood up (1891) by Emily Dickinson

It was not Death, for I stood up is a poem about mental states. It is about understanding ourselves and why we feel the way that we do when depressive thoughts and feelings weigh down on us. These kinds of thoughts can lead to feelings of hopelessness, and that can lead us to experience immense despair at the state of the world. This poem explores how it can be difficult to even explore these kinds of feelings when they come upon us.

This is why, even though “depression” as a disorder was not understood during Dickinson’s time, the feelings associated with depression can be seen as universal.

Poems (1896) by Emily Dickinson; Author Emily DickinsonEditor Mabel Loomis Todd, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A Question (1942) by Robert Frost

A Question is a poem that explores a feeling of deep suffering, and it has introspective thoughts related to an inner struggle that we might experience. This is common in those who experience depression.

Depression may be caused by external factors much of the time, but the actual expression of depression is only felt within ourselves and others cannot feel what we feel.

Robert Frost (1941) by Fred Palumbo; Fred Palumbo, World Telegram staff photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Not Waving but Drowning (1957) by Stevie Smith

Not Waving but Drowning is a poem about drowning, or at least it uses the metaphor of drowning. When it comes to poems about depression, there is often the use of metaphor to help us understand the thoughts and feelings that can be termed depressive. The poem switches from third to first-person and shows how we can perceive depressive thoughts within ourselves and how others see them from the outside.

The view from the outside is skewered and wrong, but we cannot necessarily understand, or even realize, that those around us have depression, and we might mistake what we perceive as a friendly wave when it was actually a cry for help because they were drowning.

Stevie Smith (2017); Akshay Nagaraju B, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Mirror (1963) by Sylvia Plath

Mirror is not necessarily a poem that is directly about depression, but it can be interpreted as having similar feelings associated with it. The poem is from the perspective of a mirror, and through that mirror, we see, as humans, our imperfections reflected back at us. The poem reflects reality, and those who look into its silvery face will see our every piece of self-loathing redirected back at us. Through something that is objective, we can see that we age and approach death, and this leads to dark introspection.

This is something that many who suffer from depression would find relatable, but then again, many of the poems of Sylvia Plath are relatable to those with similar feelings.

Sylvia Plath (nd); See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

We Ain’t Got No Money, Honey, But We Got Rain (1990) by Charles Bukowski

We Ain’t Got No Money, Honey, But We Got Rain is a poem that directly explores the Great Depression of the first half of the 20^th century, but through this discussion, it does also explore feelings associated with depression as an emotion. It uses the image of the rain to examine social and personal issues that lead to despair. However, the poem is ultimately more hopeful in its depiction of human endurance and survival.

They were able to pull themselves from the hole that was the Great Depression, and the mental crisis that came with it, and so they are strong creatures.

A Collection of Books by Charles Bukowski (2019); Tintin1994, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Explaining Depression to a Refugee (2018) by Muna Abdulahi

Explaining Depression to a Refugee is a poignant poem that denies many of the usual interpretations of depression poems as being those that come from a predominantly white perspective. Instead, this poem wants to understand depression and how it can be explained in more tangible terms. It is easy to become lost in ourselves when suffering from depressive thoughts and feelings, and there certainly are many other struggles in the world that come with their own difficulties.

This poem reminds us of what lies outside of depression when we may feel this way.

Depression is a shadow (2018) by Rupi Kaur

Depression is a shadow is a short and simple poem about depression from one of the most famous contemporary poets. The poem does not actually have a title, but it does end with the thought expressed in what has been labeled as the title. The poem expresses deep feelings of isolation and a lack of care for life itself. It finally ends by stating that the depression inside is a shadow that lives within us. This kind of sentiment, which is stated succinctly and simply, is one that will likely resonate with many who do experience depression.

It can feel like we’re all alone and that this monster inside can rear its head whenever we are vulnerable. It’s always lurking in the shadows.

Depression (2022) by Alison Pick

Depression is the final poem about depression in this list of depression poems, and it opens with a heartbreaking statement that “I come by it honestly”, meaning that the speaker inherited depression from their family. The poem explores the idea of gaining depression through hereditary means and that it passes from one to the next in their family line. It examines the feelings that come with depression and even refers to it as a cancer that has invaded the brain and spread. These are the kinds of thoughts that those with depression might experience as they struggle to come to terms with the feeling that refuses to leave their mind.

We have just finished with our look at 15 different poems about depression. Poems of this nature can be just as varied as any other major theme that is explored in poetry. Hopefully, that is one of the things that this article has demonstrated. Poetry isn’t all about love, despite what some people appear to think about the medium, but it also certainly isn’t all about sadness, and if this article has been a bit of a downer, that does make sense. However, even if it is a downer, there are still many things that you can do if you feel that way. There are many poems about very happy or more neutral topics, such as poems about joy or spring. There is so much out there to explore, and all you need to do is give it a quick Google search!  

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are Poems About Depression?

When it comes to poems about depression, we cannot say that there is one particular type of poem which is the depression poem variety. Instead, a poem about depression is just one that is, in some way, related to depression. However, when we use the word depression, we are often using it in a very generalized way. We do not necessarily refer to the mental health condition, but rather to the feeling that we have come to associate with depression, namely deep sadness. That said, we can still make use of the clinical condition when writing a poem about depression, but it is likely not what many think of when they think of the term.

Are There Any Specific Characteristics in Depression Poems?

As poems about depression are not actually a type of poem but rather a theme that can be explored within poetry, there are no characteristics that are associated with these kinds of poems. However, many poems about depression tend to lean more towards the sad side of poetry. So, a poem about depression may make use of darker imagery and ideas, but this is not universal. We do not all experience emotions the same way, and one could write about any emotion in any number of ways. So, there are likely poems about depression that have examined the concept in all manner of means!

Which Poets Are Known for Writing Depression Poems?

There are many poets out there who have written about depression. However, some notable ones are writers such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, and Emily Dickinson. When it comes to poets who suffered from the clinical disorder that bears this name and wrote many poems that explore ideas surrounding psychiatric depression, we cannot ignore the work of Sylvia Plath. Her poetry is considered to be some of the greatest of the 20th century, and much of her work explored these exact kinds of ideas. Many of them are raw, emotional, and deeply unhappy, but they have made her work some of the most well-known in this particular area of poetic expression.

What Are Some of the Best-Known Depression Poems?

When it comes to poems about depression, you’ll have a hard time compressing it all into a small list. This entire article has been my own attempt to do that, but to further narrow it down, we could state that some of the poems about depression that exemplify this theme include Ode on Melancholy (1820) by John Keats, Shut Out (1862) by Christina Rossetti, and It was not Death, for I stood up (1891) by Emily Dickinson. However, just as the article above with its list of 15 poems is woefully inadequate at conveying the sheer magnitude of depression poems out there, so is this even shorter answer.

Are All Depression Poems Sad?

Just because a poem is about depression does not necessarily mean that it is also sad. You would be correct for automatically assuming that many depression poems are also rather sad, but this is not always the case. For instance, a poem might be about overcoming depression, seeing the joy through depression, or understanding depressive feelings within the context of life events. There are so many reasons that someone might experience depression in their lives, and there are a myriad of other reasons why a poet might wish to express their feelings about depression. So, distilling it all down to only seeing depression poems as sad poems may not be the best idea.

The post Poems About Depression – Discover 15 Famous Examples% first appeared on Art in Context.

A Look at Connotation in Poetry

When it comes to something as integral to poetry as connotation, it can be very easy to explain the basics while difficult to explain the far deeper aspects of the concept. In the case of this particular examination of connotation in poetry, we will not be going particularly deep into how all one could analyze the various connotations that are found within texts, but we certainly can give a good overview to aid in understanding. So, that’s what we’re going to do!

Summary of Connotation in Poetry

We all know what connotation is, and we all know what it is in poetry. You may not be familiar with this particular term, but you do, on an instinctual level, understand connotation. I will list off a few connotation examples in poetry a little later to illustrate these ideas in more depth, but the basic idea is very easy to understand, and here it is:

• Connotation in poetry is the idea suggested by a word. This basically means that the connotation in poetry is not the dictionary definition of a word, but what that word means to us. So, green may be a color, but it represents
• Connotation in poetry is distinct from denotation. While connotation refers to what something means to us on a personal or cultural level, the denotation is the actual dictionary definition. Green is a color. That is all!
• Connotation in poetry has a wide array of uses. Connotation is all over the place and we will never have any hope of escaping it. All words have meaning outside of their pure dictionary definition, and so we can use connotation to suggest feelings, ideas, and so on, that are not covered by the denoted meaning of a word.

Connotation is not complex at all. Analyzing connotations found within a text can certainly become very complex over time, because we may need to justify certain connotations and our reading of them, but the basic idea is very simple and easy to understand.

Regardless of that, let’s go into it in more depth than we have so far.

A Definition of Connotation in Poetry

In very simple terms, what is connotation in poetry? Basically, it refers to the meaning that we take from a word rather than what a word technically means (for that, keep reading). So, the connotations that are found in a text are the meanings that we have created on a personal and/or cultural level. It is often easiest to explain things like this when we make use of an example.

Dogs are animals. They are specifically canines, and they are omnivorous, domesticated animals. This is what a dog actually is. However, that is not what a dog means to us, is it? We are all aware of the fact that a dog is man’s best friend. The dog represents, or connotes, loyalty, love, protection, joy, and whatever else. We generally see them as being positive, because connotations are generally positive, negative, or neutral.

That is what connotation is. It is not the actual technical meaning behind something, but the feeling that it evokes. It is what we think of when we think of that word. It is not what that word means in a dictionary definition sense. This also means that connotation is integral to metaphor in general and, by extension, with all poetry.

Characteristics of Connotation in Poetry

There are many different possible characteristics of connotation in poetry. Every single word has a different connotation that has come to be attached to it, and so it can be viewed in positive or negative ways, it is generally very subjective in its presentation seeing as you or I may have very different interpretations of the connotation of a word, it is context specific, and so on.

The main thing that we should keep in mind when it comes to connotation is that it is often harder to find than the denotation alone.

We all know that a jigsaw puzzle is a type of game that is meant to be played by arranging a series of differently cut blocks so that they can form a coherent image. We all know that, but what does that same jigsaw puzzle mean when it is placed within a certain poem or story? What does it now mean?

The Uses of Connotation in Poetry

There are many different reasons why a poet might make intentional use of connotation. Why a poet uses certain words and images forms part of the overall connotation of a text. We can find these meanings by analyzing and interpreting what we see. So, a poet might phrase something a certain way, such as by using terms that connote darkness, to create a mysterious atmosphere, or they might use words related to machinery and industry to create a mechanical atmosphere.

This can allow a poet to add depth to a poem, to influence the way that the reader perceives what is happening, create a certain kind of emotionality, and so on. Connotation is not entirely determined by the writer, but when a writer has a strong grasp of the language, they can easily determine which terms do and do not possess and/or contribute to certain connoted meanings. Which are meanings that may be desirable within a certain text.

The Difference Between Denotation and Connotation

The easiest way to see things is to view denotation as the opposite of connotation. Throughout this article, I have explained how connotation is the representation of something. A color may be a color, but in our minds, we see it as being a certain way that may not necessarily relate in a causal way with how we perceive it, such as red representing love. Denotation is the simpler meaning behind the text. What is red? It’s a color. It may represent something else, blah blah, but from a denoted perspective, it’s just a color.

We cannot have one without the other. All words have both denotation and connotation meanings attached to them.

Think of something as random and innocuous as a chair. It is a thing that you sit on. That is the denotation. But what does a chair represent? Well, it depends on where it is situated, doesn’t it? Put it at the head of a table and suddenly it means that the person who sits there is the most respected. Put it at the front of a room and make it ornate and suddenly it becomes a throne and represents royalty. Put it in the corner and stack stuff on top of it and it becomes that one chair that no one uses and instead represents disorganization. Connotation and denotation live in a relationship with one another. And it’s a very stable relationship because they cannot be separated.

A Few Connotation Examples in Poetry

There are so many possible connotation examples in poetry seeing as connotation is practically everywhere, but let’s try and scale things down a little so that we can check out at least a few instances of this concept to better understand it. We will only be examining three examples, but that should be enough to give a brief overview of how the idea of connotation in poetry can be taken a lot further.

Cover of Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell; See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sonnet 18 (1609) by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 18 is one of the most famous poems that William Shakespeare ever produced, and it makes use of a comparison between a young, beautiful man and a summer’s day. The summer’s day is used because of its connotations with beauty, temperance, and joy. We have certain associations with good summer days, and by using it as a point of comparison, the speaker is able to transfer what we associate with the day with the person that they have fixated on.

Connotations like this exist throughout poetry.

Sonnet 18 (1609) by William Shakespeare; William Shakespeare, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Sun Rising (1633) by John Donne

The Sun Rising makes use of a number of connotations, but one of the central ones is the sun itself. In this poem, the sun comes to be seen as an annoyance as it is seen as a “busy old fool” that interrupts the time the speaker has with his lover. This produces a certain negative connotation that the speaker has for the sun’s presence, and rather than being a wholly positive thing, the sun instead comes to be something that the speaker wishes they could do without.

This is just one of the ways that connotation in poetry can be presented to us.

John Donne (1622) by Isaac Oliver; National Portrait Gallery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Out, Out— (1916) by Robert Frost

Out, Out— is a poem about a very tragic death. In this case, it is based on a real death that Frost experienced in which a young child was killed in an accident involving a buzz saw. In this poem, the buzz saw comes to connote danger and the destruction of a life. It may be a very real thing in the real world, but in the language of the poem, we instead understand it as something very different, something that can only be a menace and a horror to those who have witnessed it.

Robert Frost (1941) by Fred Palumbo; Fred Palumbo, World Telegram staff photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There are so many different connotations to be found in poetry that it can be difficult to pin it down! We’ll never find every connotation because more of them could crop up at any time, but what we can do is use our understanding of connotation to better analyze and interpret the poems that we read. We all know that words mean far more than their dictionary definitions, but some of us try to pretend that everything in a text is purely surface-level. However, there is so much beneath the surface if only we would scratch and explore!

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Connotation in Poetry?

In very basic terms, connotation refers to the ideas that are reflected in words. Essentially, it does not refer to what a word actually means, but rather the ideas that it evokes in us. For example, red is a color, but it represents ideas as diverse as love, violence, war, and passion. This can often be seen as the metaphorical meaning behind a word, and we classify connotations as being positive, negative, neutral, or somewhere in between. However, arguments can be made over any kind of definitive classification.

What Are the Characteristics of Connotation in Poetry?

There are many different characteristics of connotation in poetry. We can see how the connotation influences the emotional understanding of the ideas being explored, the tone, context, or how overtly/subtly an idea is expressed. Seeing as connotation is such a general term, it can mean a whole variety of things based on the specific connotations in a text. There is no singular connotation that applies to all texts.

What Is the Difference Between Denotation and Connotation in Poetry?

These two terms are seen as opposites of one another, and they both always exist side by side too. The connotation is the representative idea behind a word, such as food representing comfort. Denotation, on the other hand, is the dictionary definition of something, and so the denoted meaning of food is as edible substance used to sustain life

What Are Some Famous Connotation Examples in Poetry?

Connotation in poetry does not really relate to a single thing, but rather something within a text. So, we can see some connotations being things like the use of a summer’s day to mean beauty in Sonnet 18 (1609) by William Shakespeare, the use of the sun as an interrupting negative force in The Sun Rising (1633) by John Donne, and the use of a buzz saw to represent danger in Out, Out— (1916) by Robert Frost. There are connotations throughout poetry, and this is only a short list.

Why Do Poets Use Connotation in Poetry?

There are many different reasons for the use of connotation in poetry. It can, at a very basic level, be used to produce metaphorical understanding. Words do not simply mean what they denote; they instead mean so much more. When a rose is given as a gift, it is only special because of the human-made meanings that we have ascribed to a plant that only has a sweet scent and beautiful color for the purpose of plant reproduction. We have our own meanings attached to that smell and hue, such as human ideas of beautiful smell and romantic inclination.

The post Connotation in Poetry – The Art of Suggestion Through Words% first appeared on Art in Context.

A Look at the Limerick in Poetry

Why is the limerick so popular when few could probably name a limerick poem or a poet associated with it? Probably because this form of poetry does not necessarily lend itself to being well-known on their own. Every limerick example, by its very nature, is a very short poem with a rather basic rhyme scheme, and they also often don’t even have titles. The reason that they generally don’t have titles is because of their length. Why name something so short? They are also often rather silly and humorous, and this does not lend the genre the kind of credibility that we associate (wrongly) with something like a sonnet. A limerick poem has every right to exist as a sonnet, but we still don’t see them, for the most part, as being on par with the so-called “serious” types of poetry. However, I’m going to give them the appropriate love today! So, let’s chat about limericks!

Summary of the Limerick in Poetry

The very first thing that we’re going to do today is to not even jump straight into limerick poems but to instead have a bit of a summary. These summarized points will, in very basic terms, answer our central question today: what is a limerick? However, a summary is still just a summary, but it should help with understanding the limerick in poetry:

• The limerick in poetry is a short form of poetry. By its very nature, the limerick in poetry is short. It has a line count of five. This means that a poem cannot be a limerick if it is any longer. There have been some poets who have made use of limericks as stanzas within a larger poem, but this is not what we generally think of as a “limerick poem” in the traditional sense.
• The limerick in poetry has a specific rhyme scheme. When it comes to this five-line poem structure, we have to also use a certain rhyme scheme. In terms of this poem’s structure, it makes use of an AABBA rhyme scheme. This allows it to make use of two pairs of rhyme followed by a reiteration of the first rhyme. It has a bouncy flow to it that keeps the structure entertaining.
• The limerick in poetry is often used for comedic verse. While a limerick poem could be about something serious, they usually aren’t. This particular poetic variety has come to be associated with humor. The form allows it to be short and punchy, and so the poets who have experimented with the form have generally taken that to mean that they can write some very goofy stuff with the limerick.

This summary may be just a summary, but there is use in summaries. Back in my old classroom, I used to hand out summaries to all of my students because it really does help, especially when prepping for an exam!

However, just looking at a summary is far from a good thing, and for that reason, we are going to now jump into a far lengthier discussion about the limerick in poetry.

A Definition of the Limerick in Poetry

In very basic terms, we can see the limerick in poetry as being a short style that only makes use of one stanza that is five lines long. In addition, the rhyme scheme of a limerick poem is set in stone as it is AABBA. This is a limerick at its most simplistic, but the form has never been complex in any real sense, but we should go into a little more depth about what each of those different aspects of the structure of the limerick means for it and the way that it has been used.

The Features of the Limerick in Poetry

We have already provided a brief explanation of the primary aspects of the limerick in poetry, but we should go a little more deeply into each of those very aspects to explain why they contribute to the limerick’s popularity. You see, the limerick is a rather popular form of poetry even though most people probably couldn’t name a single limerick example to save their lives. It’s easy to gesture in a vague direction of a limerick, but why does it actually use the structure that it uses?

Let’s start with that line length. It is made up of five lines. This makes it a particularly short poem.

Anything that is short will generally, by its very nature, be punchy. This is also why haiku are so popular. This also means that, like haiku, limericks often don’t have titles. They are too short to really incentivize the use of titles at all. This punchy nature also means that the limerick is absolutely perfect for humor and silliness.

The rhyme structure further contributes to this. The rhyme scheme is arranged as AABBA. This rhyme scheme is perfect for the short and punchy presentation of the limerick. It makes use of two rhyming couplets in a row and ends on a callback to the first couplet. By the time you reach the fifth line in the poem, you may not necessarily have the rhyme of the first two in your head any longer, and so that final line also serves as an ending off point that cuts the rhyme of the previous two lines off very suddenly. This adds a lot of extra punch.

This use of five lines, four of which use paired rhyme, means that the fifth lines is absolutely perfect for the use of a punchline. It’s a final BAM right at the end! Humor has always been integral to the development of the limerick, and many of these poems have either been for children or very much not for children. The jokey setup of the structure means that it does serve humor well, and humor is enjoyed by both kids and adults. However, the limericks favored by children are often silly and the adult ones tend to be a lot naughtier and very sexual or even flat-out gross.

The Common Uses of the Limerick in Poetry

It has already been mentioned but stands to be reiterated and expanded upon, that limericks are often jokes. They’re popular in children’s literature because they can be silly, short, and punchy, but this also means that they are absolutely perfect to be adapted into other joke forms. They can be quick and easy to produce, they make good use of rhyme and rhythm, and they can have highly variable meter.

Furthermore, because of the relative simplicity of their creation, they have become a favored form of amateur poets.

Their generally light-hearted nature means that they are unlikely to draw much critical response and can therefore be enjoyed as fun pieces of wordplay rather than high-minded poetry. And, of course, many poets can make an array of dirty jokes when they decide to adopt this format.

The Poets Who Have Produced Limerick Poems

The limerick has been around for a very long time. However, there are certain poets who have come to be more associated with the form than others. I have thrown a list of limerick examples in the section below, and those are from poets who are as diverse as Algernon Charles Swinburne and Rudyard Kipling. There have even been limericks written by poets such as T.S. Eliot. However, we are more likely to expect this form out of a poet like Lewis Carroll seeing as his work was in nonsense literature.

Speaking of nonsense literature though, the man most associated with the limerick is Edward Lear. This writer was both a poet and an illustrator and his Book of Nonsense (1846) was one of the great popularizers of the limerick format. These poets, who made strong use of humor in their limericks, would set the stage for the humor-infused normalcy of the limerick in literature, and it’s unlikely that this particular understanding of the form will go anywhere anytime soon.

However, before we get to the next section and have a look at a few limerick examples, where did the name come from and why? Well, the limerick is named after Limerick, which is a town in Ireland. It has come to be believed that the town’s various pubs saw the development of the limerick as a joke structure and that it then spread outside the city and into the hands of those who were mentioned above.

It should still be remembered that many nameless and anonymous joke poets laid the foundation for what would eventually come.

A Few Limerick Examples

When you want to learn about a topic, check out some examples of it. This was often my strategy as a teacher, and while the limerick is not very often taught at high school or beyond, it certainly is a famous and popular type of poetry. It is also fascinating that many limericks also lack titles. The limerick examples below have simply been named after their first lines, and this may also make them hard to find, but thanks to their very short length, you can probably find massive lists of them if you decide to go looking. Until then though, let’s just start with the five below.

There was a young lady of station (Between 1832 and 1898) by Lewis Carroll

There was a young lady of station is a rather absurd little limerick example, but that is the case with many limericks out there. In this case, the limerick tells us about a young lady, who is at the train station, and proclaims that she loves “man”, and men are happy to hear it, but she instead informs them that she was referring to the Isle of Man. It is a silly thing, but that is the case with many different limericks out there. The humor is often not very laugh out loud, but rather intended to put a small smile on your face.

In addition, this is a limerick by one of the most famous of all nonsense writers, and it may come as a surprise that he didn’t write more limericks in his life!

Self Portrait (1856) by Lewis Carroll; Reginald Southey, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There was a young girl of Aberystwyth (Between 1837 and 1909) by Algernon Charles Swinburne

There was a young girl of Aberystwyth is a crude poem. When it comes to the limerick in poetry, as has been discussed, humor is very common, and if you were to just look up “dirty limericks” on Google, you’d find a whole host of sexualized limerick poems, but this is a much older one. This limerick example, which crassly concludes by saying that two people had sexual intercourse with one another by uniting certain organs, is especially crude because those “organs” are also described as the ones that we use to urinate.

The limerick has often been a way to be a bit gross or irreverent while sticking to a very formal type of verse.

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1861) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

God’s plan made a hopeful beginning (Between 1841 and 1935) by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

God’s plan made a hopeful beginning is a good instance of the limerick in poetry that is not necessarily all about being crude and crass. Instead, this limerick example has a far more serious message to convey. It states that God created us in a more hopeful sense, but that we have all just become sinners. It is not quite as irreverent as the limericks that have been discussed above, but it does go to show just what all can be done with the limerick.

This will be the last of the more serious limerick poems on this list though, because most of them are rather silly.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr (1924); https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/npc2008006910/, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There was an Old Man with a beard (1846) by Edward Lear

There was an Old Man with a beard is a limerick poem by one of the most famous writers of limericks. This poem, which is aimed at children, talks about the silly tale of an old man who has a beard that has come to be the home of many different birds. The poem is fun and entertaining and aimed squarely at a childhood audience. This is often where limericks go when they are produced because they are bouncy and entertaining, and they leave a smile on the face of every young child who reads one of them.

Limericks can, obviously, be about a lot more, but there’s a reason that Edward Lear is seen as a major popularizer of the limerick form.

There was an Old Man with a beard (1846) by Edward Lear; Edward Lear, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There was a small boy of Quebec (1902) by Rudyard Kipling

There was a small boy of Quebec is the last of the limerick poems that we will explore today before we move on, and it is from one of the most famous colonial writers of the 20^th century. The poem is about a young boy who is buried in snow, and so you would assume he’d be freezing cold, but he instead proclaims that this is not considered cold in Quebec. It is silly and humorous, and exactly the sort of comedic little thing that a child may enjoy. It’s hardly deep and meaningful but then again, which limerick is?

Rudyard Kipling (1892) by the Bourne & Shepherd studio; Bourne & Shepherd, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ah, the limerick. This is one of the best-known types of poem even though most of us could never name a single limerick off the top of our head! Now, this does have at least something to do with the fact that limericks often lack names and that they are so short, but it does still make it rather fascinating that they are so well known. Either way, we have spent today giving the limerick in poetry some attention by discussing the form, some of its characteristics, the poets associated with it, and a handful of limerick examples. This overview is far from the most comprehensive thing ever written about the limerick, but it should be enough to show this form some love. So, get out there and find some limericks to enjoy! They explore all sorts of topics, but just be careful around them because many are very dirty (unless, of course, that’s exactly what you’re looking for).

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is a Limerick in Poetry?

The limerick is a form of poetry that makes use of a short line number, a single stanza, and a bouncy rhyme scheme. When it comes to limerick poems, we generally see them as humorous things aimed at either a childhood or juvenile audience. They are usually meant to be funny or irreverent, and so there are many child-friendly versions of limericks that are just silly and cute, and there are also many limerick poems that are very dirty. It can swing both ways very easily.

What Are the Characteristics of Limerick Poems?

The basic characteristics of the limerick are that they have five lines, an AABBA rhyme scheme, and often have a distinct meter. The form has come to be associated with humor because of its short length and punchy rhyme scheme. However, there can be more serious poems that make use of this structure. They are few and far between in comparison to the sillier ones though.

What Are Limerick Examples Predominantly Written For?

When we think of limerick poems, we often think of children. While there certainly are many very adult limerick poems, especially the myriad of immensely dirty ones that can be found all over the internet, the form of the limerick is often associated with humor and an attempt at being entertaining rather than necessarily being serious or trying to adopt any degree of poignancy. So, the limerick in poetry is often linked with children and comedy, and for very good reason!

What Are Some of the Most Famous Limerick Examples?

When it comes to limerick examples, we can easily point toward instances of the form such as There was a young lady of station (Between 1932 and 1898) by Lewis Carroll, There was an Old Man with a beard (1846) by Edward Lear, and There was a small boy of Quebec (1902) by Rudyard Kipling. However, these few limerick examples are only a few of them, and there are loads of other examples out there to choose from if you are so inclined.

Which Poets Are Best Known for Writing Limerick Poems?

There have been quite a number of poets who have written limericks, such as Lewis Carroll, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and Rudyard Kipling. However, while poets like this have written limericks over the years, they are not typically associated with the limerick. When it comes to a poet who was often directly associated with the proliferation and popularization of the limerick, we have to mention Edward Lear. This figure, and his 1846 collection of nonsense literature for children titled Book of Nonsense, was a leading factor in the development of the limerick.

The post Limerick in Poetry – A Look at Comedic Short-Verse Prose% first appeared on Art in Context.

A Look at Pastoral Poetry

There tends to be a special kind of draw when it comes to rural and natural landscapes. The human animal often finds a certain peace and beauty within such spaces. This is what pastoral poetry aims to show. This form is usually concerned with presenting a gorgeous and idyllic interpretation of rural life, and it has ancient origins too. So, let’s tap into that sense of natural awe together and have a look at pastoral poetry.

The Hay Wain (1821) by John Constable; John Constable, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Summary of Pastoral Poetry

Before we jump on in and wade around the waters of pastoral poetry, let’s have a pit stop at a summary! This may not be necessary for everyone who is interested in pastoral poetry, but it can certainly help:

• Pastoral poetry is concerned with rural life. This is the primary characteristic for which pastoral poetry is known, and there tends to be a very positive and idyllic interpretation of said rural landscapes in pastoral poems.
• Pastoral poetry began in ancient Greece. The earliest instances of this form of poetry, like many other forms of poetry, can be traced all the way back to this Classical period. Theocritus is seen as the father of the form.
• Pastoral poetry is still in use today. While most of the immensely famous examples of pastoral poetry were written in earlier times, pastoral poetry continues to be written today and, when not written directly, it does still often have a direct influence on poems that explore natural themes and ideas.

We all know that summaries are inherently flawed. By their very nature, they are too short and do not go into any real detail, but that’s what the rest of this article is for!

So, if this summary was not enough, let’s keep going!

The Origins of Pastoral Poetry

The origins of this particular form of poetic expression can be traced back to Theocritus, who was an ancient Greek poet. So, the earliest origins of this poetry are truly ancient. Other writers, such as Virgil, the later Romantics, and many others, would come to present their own versions of pastoral poems. The form would persist into the present day and can now be found in various places around the world, although we will look at that in a little more depth below.

The Characteristics of Pastoral Poetry

The primary characteristic of pastoral poetry is its focus on rural life. However, this rural life is usually shown in very idyllic terms, such as a focus on a kind of divine beauty. In addition, there tend to be allegorical or metaphorical ways in which these pastoral landscapes are presented to the reader. For instance, the rural countryside is often shown to have a certain innocence that urban landscapes do not possess. In many ways, pastoral poetry exists as a contrast to other forms of poetry for this reason. It does indeed typically focus on the real world, in a sense, but it does so by exploring it from an overly optimistic lens.

This fixation on the natural has led it to become quite an influential genre of poetry.

The Prevalence of Pastoral Poetry in the Modern Day

When exploring a kind of poetry and trying to understand its presence in the modern day, I have always found in my own experience that it is not necessarily useful to simply claim that some type of poetry does still exist. Instead, where have the tendrils of influence managed to move into the present day? Basically, pastoral poetry does still exist, but the most famous versions are generally those that are older.

View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (1836) by Thomas Cole; Thomas Cole, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

However, pastoral poetry also had a major influence on nature poetry in general. And when it comes to poems about the natural world, there is no reduction in the production of such poems in the present day. For this reason, if we are to take the influences of pastoral poetry over just standard pastoral poems and have a look at their prevalence today, there are probably more than there’s ever been before!

Pastoral poetry, and the nature poems that have followed from it, are alive and well today.

Examples of Pastoral Poems

We learn best about a topic when we do one simple thing, and that’s to have a look at several examples. So, we are going to engage in that exact same type of activity, because being educational is often inherently unoriginal, and we’ll look at two such instances of pastoral poems that have become influential examples of the form.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (1599) by Christopher Marlowe

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is a pastoral poem that focuses on the life of a shepherd as he thinks about the world that he wishes to create for the woman that he loves. The natural world that he describes in this poem focuses on a rural presentation, a kind of natural sensuality, and an idealized form of love.

This has gone on to become one of the best-known examples of pastoral poetry ever written.

The Good Shephard (1660) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo; Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Lycidas (1638) by John Milton

Lycidas is both a pastoral poem and an elegy. The poem was written for one of Milton’s friends, a man named Edward King, who tragically drowned. The poem uses many different pastoral elements to create the image of a natural landscape while also focusing on the sense of mourning and what comes after death. The idyllic landscape is used as a representation of innocence and beauty and, as a result, this poem has become seen as an archetypal pastoral poem.

The Monk by the Sea (c. 1810) by Casper David Friederich; Caspar David Friedrich, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

We have come to the end of our brief examination of pastoral poetry, but there is still much that we can learn if we wish to do so. This article has quickly explored some elements, such as the origins and characteristics of pastoral poems, but if you want more of this kind of rural-focused poetry, there is so much out there for you to find!

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Pastoral Poetry?

When it comes to understanding pastoral poetry, it is rather easy to do so because it is poetry that focuses on a pastoral existence. This means that pastoral poems explore rural life, the countryside, nature, those who work in such environments, and so on.

What Are the Characteristics of Pastoral Poetry?

When we take a look at pastoral poetry in general, there is typically a more idyllic interpretation of rural environments. There is usually an emphasis on peacefulness, a connection to the natural world, and so on.

What Are Some Famous Pastoral Poems?

Many of the most famous pastoral poems are older texts, such as The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (1599) by Christopher Marlowe and Lycidas (1638) by John Milton. However, elements of pastoral poetry can still be found to this day, and many instances of nature poetry have been influenced by it.

The post Pastoral Poetry – A Guide to Prose About Rural Landscapes% first appeared on Art in Context.

A Few Friendship Poems

What does it mean to have a poem about friendship? Well, friendship can mean many things to many different people. Many of the poems below will look at different ways in which friendship can be shown and expressed. Friendship is something incredibly multifaceted and the idea that there is any specific and “correct” way to show friendship does not take into full account the many different ways that we might experience our friends. This list of friendship poems is only a collection of 10 though and so there will, fundamentally, be a certain level of narrowness to what is discussed. Although there are so many other ways to show friendship than is shown in these poems, this list should be a good place to start!

Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old (1609) by William Shakespeare

To me, fair friend, you never can be old is a poem that bleeds between being a friendship poem and a love poem. It certainly uses language directed towards a friend, but it is also part of the larger Fair Youth sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and these are concerned with love for a young man. This poem focuses on how the age of his friend and possible love has remained for all the years in which they have known each other. Time and its effects on people have long been a topic that Shakespeare explored, and it’s one that can also be very easily applied to friendship in general. When with our friends, we can often regress to an earlier point. They are who we’ve always known, and it takes a major change for us to really see that shift in them.

Our friends will always be a certain way in our eyes, and time does little to change that.

Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old (1609) by William Shakespeare; William Shakespeare, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A Poison Tree (1794) by William Blake

A Poison Tree is a poem that many may not ordinarily associate with friendship all that much as the text describes, in some detail, the pitfalls of anger and resentment. The poem shows the kinds of feelings that can come out of those feelings when left unchecked. The poem, by exploring these ideas, suggests that friendship and closeness to others can help us to mitigate these thoughts and to stop them from growing out of control. It shows us that the kind of communication we can gain from relationships with friends is immensely beneficial to us, and this is the sort of lesson that poetry can explore.

It can aid us in seeing why friends might be good for us on a deeper level and, as a result, it turns this poem into a fantastic examination of how damaging emotion can be to us when taken in isolation.

A Poison Tree (1794) by William Blake; William Blake, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

To a Friend who sent me some Roses (1816) by John Keats

To a Friend who sent me some Roses is a poem that fixates on exactly what it states in the title. Much of the poem is dedicated more to an appreciation for the roses in question, but there is the pondering thought on how the flower came to him. The poem does not necessarily state whether the flower was directly gifted to him, but that feeling of receiving something lingers throughout the poem. The idea of receiving gifts from friends is something that many of us can appreciate. While many friends are not always the gifting sorts in our lives, many of us do have relationships of this variety with those who may wish to give us gifts of some or another description to show us their love for us.

Some of us are uncomfortable with such things, and words like “love” can often cause us confusion, but shouldn’t we have love for our friends?

John Keats (c. 1823) by Joseph Severn; Joseph Severn, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

After the Quarrel (1913) by Paul Laurence Dunbar

After the Quarrel is a poem about language, but it’s also a poem about relationships. Language can be used to harm or benefit others, and in this poem, the text examines these kinds of ideas. It specifically focuses on the ways in which we can use language as a way of leading to a positive change in others and in society at large. In terms of its connections to friendship, the poem wants us to understand that friendship can be a powerful thing when we choose to properly communicate with one another.

It can be a difficult thing to accomplish, but choosing to work side by side instead of lashing out will always lead to better results.

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1906); Kell, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Power of the Dog (1922) by Rudyard Kipling

The Power of the Dog is a poem that most of us can understand. Who needs human friends when there’s a perfectly good dog friend nearby instead!? This poem is, as the title immediately tells us, about dogs and the kind of friendship that we can achieve with these friends of ours. Many of us tend to think of friendship in purely human terms, but a poem like this can show us that when it comes to our furry friends, there is indeed much that can be gained from having them as members of our friendship groups too. There’s no reason that there can’t be best friend poems about man’s best friend, after all. To many of us, dogs are our good friends and companions and they often have many of the attributes that we adore in friends, such as loyalty, affection, and a constant desire to have fun with us!

If you need a friend, a dog will be better than most humans!

Portrait of Rudyard Kipling (c. 1891) by John Collier; John Collier, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A Time to Talk (1972) by Robert Frost

A Time to Talk is a rather beautiful little poem that shows us something phenomenal about friendship. The poem is a simple one that entails a character who is busy doing his own thing, but a friend appears (on a horse, so it’s a bit dated! But substitute it with a car and you’ll be fine), and so the man immediately stops what he’s doing so that he can chat to his friend. This is a short and sweet scene, but one that anyone who has a friend can very easily understand. When a friend stops by unannounced, and they’re an actual friend, you stop what you’re doing and you spend some time with them. There doesn’t need to be any kind of a reason to do anything like this, but it can make us feel great to chat with a friend for a while, and sometimes friendship is something small like that.

It’s having a chat with a friend that you may not have seen for a while.

Robert Frost (1913); See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Hug O’War (1974) by Shel Silverstein

Hug O’War is one of our examples of a friendship poem, but the thing that sets it apart from the rest of these poems is that it’s also a poem for children. This poem is aimed squarely at kids but can be understood by someone older too. In it, the speaker states that they do not wish to play tug o’ war and instead want to hug it out. It’s a non-violent perspective aimed at something that is often taken for granted and not thought about all that much.

This is a lovely and short poem about friendship and one that also has a positive message for young people who may not otherwise learn things like things from other places.

Portrait of Shel Silverstein (1964) by Jerry Uelsmann; Jerry Yulsman (given on back of dust jacket), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Alone (1975) by Maya Angelou

Alone is a poem that focuses on something more than only friendship. It certainly can be seen to go beyond the purview of only being an example of the friendship poems above and below, but it does still act as one. In this poem, Angelou muses on the realities of being alone. She focuses on how no one can be truly alone and hope to make it in this world. The text may not be like one of the best friend poems we have looked at, but it understands the need for relationships of all sorts, and the relationships that we have with friends are certainly one of those kinds of relationships. Humans are fundamentally social animals, and our friends are part of that social network on which we so strongly depend.

This poem wants us to understand that friends, and other relationships, are needed for us to be as we are meant to be, and it is a beautiful text thanks to that.

Portrait photograph of Maya Angelou (1974) by Jill Krementz; Jill Krementz, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

To All My Friends (2021) by May Yang

To All My Friends is a friendship poem that comments on and understands the negative aspects of our lives in which the positives of friendship can help us to overcome. It discusses our personal weaknesses and the struggles that we experience, but our friends can be there to help us. They see us for who we are, and they know us. We all face difficult parts of our lives, and friendship poems of this variety show us that those very same people can be there for us when we need them in situations like that.

Friends are not solely for when things are good and great, they are also there for when things get rough, when we experience heartbreak, rejection, personal tragedy, and so on.

A Friend (2022) by Gillian Jones

A Friend is exactly the kind of thing that you may want out of your best friend poems. It is a poem that goes to great lengths to discuss all the kinds of things that a real friend would be. For instance, it focuses on how a real friend will be there for you when times are tough, they won’t condemn you for the things that you think or do, and they’ll make you feel happy. These are rather typical things that we think of when we think of what we’d want out of our friends. There is a focus here on the kind of friend-oriented love that many of us want out of our relationships with our friends. We love them and we hope that they too love us. This friendship poem focuses on this kind of experience with friendship, something of a platonic ideal, and even when these are not the kinds of friends that we might always be able to have in our lives, it certainly is the kind of thing that we should strive to be. And, in addition to that, the poem does also give us a clue as to how we should be toward our own friends.

Many of us have friends. It would be presumptuous to say that we all do or that we all necessarily want them, but it is a near-universal idea that friends, or at least good friends, are a positive in our lives. This list of poems has typically focused on the positive aspects of friendship, but there certainly will be poems and other texts that have a darker approach when it comes to the topic of friendship. However, this article has been a happier affair overall, and, hopefully, you have enjoyed some of the poems that have been discussed. You should always remember that there are many other poems out there that you can check out if this is far too small a selection of friendship poems for you!

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are Friendship Poems?

When it comes to friendship poems, we’re essentially looking at any kind of a poem that is, in some way, about friendship. A poem about friendship does not have to be a poem that sees friendship as some positive thing, because our relationships with our friends can often be wrought with bad feelings and harsh words, but there does tend to be an idealized view of what it means to be a friend and how our friends should act. So, there are many different ways that friendship poems might be approached, but the one principal thing that is needed for something to be a friendship poem is that it is about friends and/or friendships.

What Are the Characteristics of Friendship Poems?

Friendship poems are a very nebulous and general concept, and this means that there are no necessary characteristics that are attached to friendship poems. If a poet wanted to use rhyme, irregular meter, and a limerick structure, they could do so! A friendship poem can make use of any characteristics under the sun, but those characteristics are generally attached to the tone. For instance, if the poem is about some kind of negative aspect of friendship, then it probably uses harsher language, and if it’s about how good friendship can be, then it will likely have a far bouncier and happier structure.

Which Formal Poetic Type Is Most Used for Friendship Poems?

There are so many different formal categories for poetry, such as villanelles and sestinas. However, none of these are strictly necessary when it comes to friendship poems. A poet does not need to make use of a sonnet or a limerick to be a poem about friendship. They could use anything, or even just make up a free verse structure to use instead of anything more standard. Ultimately, there are no real restrictions on something as broad as friendship because it is more of a topic or theme than something that can be classified into any kind of formalized category.

What Are Some of the Most Famous Friendship Poems?

There are quite a number of very famous friendship poems out there! Some of the best known of them all include poems such as After the Quarrel (1913) by Paul Laurence Dunbar, A Time to Talk (1972) by Robert Frost, and Hug O’War (1974) by Shel Silverstein. Sadly, any attempt to produce a shortened list like this, or a longer list like the one above, can hardly show off everything that exists of a topic in poetry. There are far more best friend poems and poems about friendship in general than are listed above.

Which Famous Poets Have Written Friendship Poems?

There have been many poets over the centuries who have written about friendship. For instance, William Shakespeare incorporated it into some of his texts, some of the Romantics like William Blake and John Keats also used this theme, and later writers like Robert Frost and Paul Laurence Dunbar would incorporate these elements too. There are far more than only these poets who have written friendship poems though, but this should show some of the breadth of what is available when it comes to poems of this variety.

The post Friendship Poems – Celebrating Companionship Through Prose% first appeared on Art in Context.