The Everything Writing Poetry Book (33 page)

    
A damsel with a dulcimer
    In a vision once I saw:
    It was an Abyssinian maid,
    And on her dulcimer she played,
    Singing of Mount Abora.
    Could I revive within me
    Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise
.

To record your own visions, pay attention to experiences you have had that seem out of the ordinary. Since visions of this sort bring you into contact with other powers, they should stand out. Write out in detail what you have seen. Record any insights you have learned about yourself, too.

Chapter 16
Writing Humorously

T
hough poetry is generally a serious genre of writing, many poets have chosen to use humor in their work. Poems can satirize people, places, and objects, or take an ironic look at life. Some poems exaggerate for an absurd effect, and others tone down hilarious events to create a sense of irony. Poems can be witty, charming, hysterical, or riotous—the choice is entirely up to you.

Satire and Parody

Satire
traditionally centers on the weaknesses, vices, or mistakes of a person or a particular group of people. That weakness is exposed to the public with the intent that it be addressed and perhaps corrected. The satire can become cruel, but usually it is lighthearted enough to make even its subject smile.

Parody
is closely linked to satire, satire often being the purpose of parody. A good parody gets its message across by pretending to be the very thing it makes fun of. For instance, a parody of a science fiction movie follows the rules and conventions of sci-fi movies. A parody of a romance novel follows the rules and conventions of romance novels. A parody of a love sonnet follows the rules concerning meter, foot patterns, line lengths, and content.

How to Create a Satire

People in prominent positions are often the subjects of satire simply because of their visibility. A president, a governor, a movie star, even your boss at work—all are in plain sight of the people around and below them. Any misstep they make instantly becomes the topic of gossip and ridicule. Though these people are good subjects for satire, almost any person, place, or thing will do.

To write a satire, you need an appropriate subject. You don't have to go after a president or somebody famous, though he may deserve it. You just need to choose someone, or something, that has gotten your attention. For example, perhaps the copy machine at work has devoured yet another of your expense reports. The copy machine has gotten your attention, and its malfunctioning behavior is the aspect you can mock.

A Look at Parody

Here is a parody of Coleridge's well-known ode “Dejection: An Ode,” written by Charles Harper Webb, entitled “Dejection: Not Even an Ode”:

After a month in hospital, what cancer patient
still has dignity? After years in solitary
who is lonely any more? “I'm past caring,”
the farmer tells his bank after the fourth dry spring
.

My love for music—even Little Richard
and Zeppelin, Tchaikovsky and Bach—erodes
each day A chocolate malt's not what it was
Once I chugged down women by the case;

now I lack stomach for one. After so many
rainbow trout, their glimmer dulls, their fight
fades like a message carried on kite string
My bench press steadily declines. Only

so many times a man can shoo the cat, or tell
a grandchild, “Stay out of the street,” and care
Only so many drive-by shootings will bring tears
At 15, I thought old people were fear-crazed

all the time, staring at death's empty eyes
Now I know why, in those Kleenex-clutcher movies
I despised, Grannie smiles out of her pain
and whispers, “I'm tired. Blow out the candles, dears.”

From
Red Rock Review.
Reprinted with the permission of the author
.

The humor is very dark but understandable if you read Coleridge's poem. Coleridge's speaker anxiously anticipates a storm. Webb exaggerates this aspect: His speaker paints a bleaker picture of life than Coleridge's speaker could ever dream. He also makes fun of Coleridge's somber intent in the title; the words “not even” suggest the poem is too depressing to be an ode.

Irony

Irony
is created when intent and outcome do not match. For example, imagine you want to impress your date with a candlelit dinner. You make reservations at a fancy restaurant, buy a new outfit, and get a haircut. Even the weather cooperates. Everything is going great when the maitre d' seats you at a secluded table. The waiter brings you champagne to start you off, but then … the cork explodes out of the bottle and smacks your date in the eye! After a half-hour of holding an ice pack to the injury your date can proceed with dinner. However, the mood is ruined. All of the preparations you made for the date, contrasted with the immediate disaster, create irony.

Irony can be used to create humorous or serious effects, and both can be found in poems. A humorous effect occurs when the outcome is both surprising and amusing. More serious forms of irony cause a reader to think deeply about a subject. In all, you have four types of irony to work with:
verbal irony, dramatic irony, situational irony
, and
cosmic irony

Verbal Irony

Verbal irony occurs when you say one thing but mean another. If your roommate leaves her dirty laundry all over the house, you might call her a neat freak to draw her attention to her sloppiness. This is an example of verbal irony, and it occurs all the time, in everyday speech. This sort of irony can lead to
sarcasm
if it has an edge to it.

Often you will say ironic things on purpose, but occasionally you will say them by accident. These instances can be great for use in poetry. Keep your ears open (and use the “fly on the wall” technique) when you're in public places. Listen for dialogue that you can use in an ironic poem. Perhaps you'll hear a child tell her parent to grow up or a wife beg her husband not to buy her diamonds. Record these unconventional instances and explore them in your writing.

Dramatic Irony

Dramatic irony occurs when the characters do not know what the audience knows. For example, in the original film
The Parent Trap
, one of the twin sisters cuts the back of the other's dress as she is going to an elegant party. The audience can see the cut running all the way to her hips, but the girl herself isn't aware of it right away. In a humorous situation, part of the fun is watching the character's surprise when she catches up with the audience.

Consider a poem by Dayvid Figler, “The Infinite Wisdom of the Father,” which makes ample use of dramatic irony. The speaker of the poem creates the irony by filling in the meanings behind what the father says. The father remains ignorant of these meanings—hence, the irony.

I
.

Sprawled out across Father's knee to
Receive what I deserved (oh, when good prayers go wrong),
He said, “This is going to hurt me more than you.”

Did he mean his arthritis?

I said, “Dad, despite your proclamation, you cannot
    literally beat some sense into anyone.”

“OWWW!” (I was 27)
.

II
.

“If you don't stop your crying, I'll give you something to cry about.”

What eight-year-old wants something to cry about?
What eight-year-old can stop crying?

“That's it,” he said, “I'm going outside to kill your dog.”

He grabbed a serrated steak knife
.

Tears kept flowing, but now changed color.
We didn't own a dog.
The neighbors did
.

III
.

Father would abandon us
To go out on gambling binges in the name
Of seeking
A loaf of bread.
Sometimes gone for days at a time,
Mom would forgive him if he came home a winner
.

“Who can really complain?” Mom would whisper counting her share
.

Was I a love child?

“The only reason your mother and I
    never got a divorce
        was because of you kids
            … neither one of us wanted custody.”

They stayed together till the end of time.
We all did.
Who can really complain?

Reprinted with the permission of the author
.

Note that Figler is also writing a satire about some of society's preconceived notions of behavior. Parent-child relations, divorce, custody, gambling, abuse, and animal cruelty receive Figler's attention. Despite the seriousness of these issues, Figler uses irony to allow the reader to laugh at them.

Situational Irony

Situational irony is like verbal irony except with actions instead of words. One action may be intended, but the outcome may be completely unexpected. The example given at the beginning of this section, in which the wine cork hits your date in the eye, is an example of situational irony. A romantic dinner date was intended, but the outcome was a black eye.

Cosmic Irony

Cosmic irony occurs when you have a sense that the entire universe is working against a character. No matter how hard that character struggles, the Powers That Be bring him or her to a contrary result. For example, in the Coyote and Road Runner cartoons, Wile E. Coyote toils relentlessly to catch Road Runner. However, every gadget he uses and every trap he builds malfunctions at the critical time. In every episode, the coyote ends up falling from a humongous cliff, getting smashed by giant boulders, or being blown up by dynamite—the list of failures goes on and on.

Hyperbole and Understatement

Another way to inspire laughter with your poems is by using
hyperbole
and
understatement
. These figures of speech are opposite ends of the same scale. Hyperbole means exaggeration—going over the top. Understatement is just the opposite—toning down a situation.