Charles Lee (4) (1870–1956)

This is a classic, and very funny, anthology of found humour in the form of bad poetry, ranging from errors by major poets -- Dryden, Wordsworth, Byron, and Tennyson all show up, and the title is that of a Wordsworth sonnet ("Yet, helped by Genius -- untired Comforter,/ The presence even of a stuffed Owl for her / Can cheat the time") -- to those who are famous precisely as bad poets, with Julia Moore in pride of place, and a fair selection of Pope's dunces. (As Hugh Kenner pointed out, Pope show more himself had too keen an ear and too precise a sense of what he is doing to drop to this level: but the book can be considered in some sense a supplement to Pope's Peri Bathous.) Well worth keeping on one's shelves to dip into from time to time (a straight read-through would be like overdosing on a heavy dessert). show less

There are some truly amazing and hilarious examples of bad verse in this book — and some of the worst offenders have familiar names (I'm looking at you, Wordsworth!). It has made me want to seek out the book by Julia Moore, the Sweet Singer of Michigan, that gave such pleasure to Mark Twain. The book suffers a bit from the attitude and style of the editors, especially their assumption that all readers have the educational background of an upper-class Englishman of the 1930s-40s, leaving show more some of the humor impenetrable to me. But overall it is funny and enjoyable, and will enjoy a place of honor near my McGonagall collection. show less

I just love this book.

I was directed to it via [b:The Book of Heroic Failures: The Official Handbook of the Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain|2272168|The Book of Heroic Failures The Official Handbook of the Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain|Stephen Pile|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1329607535s/2272168.jpg|2278188] so was quite pleased indeed when I came across it (and only at $3!)

This is unabashedly bad poetry. The book starts off with a some 1 or 2 line excerpts but it's the show more longer ones which I enjoy most

An example:

What is liquid - Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

All that doth flow we cannot liquid name,
Or else would fie and water be the same;
But that is liquid which is moist and wet;
Fire that propriety can never get:
Then 'tis not cold that doth the fire put out,
But 'tis the wet that makes it die, no doubt. show less

Full of bathos and just plain bad poetry, but you have to take it in small bites, otherwise you just get overwhelmed.

To mend the movement of your heart, How great is my delight!
Gently to wind your morals up And set your hand aright!
--From "A Runcible Thought" by Edward Young. Noted as addressed to the poet's "dear friend, Voltaire," then in his sixty-eighth year and quite incorrigible.

Many morals get wound up, but I don't think that's what Young had in mind.

Here's another excerpt:

How brave a show more prospect is a bright backside!--Henry Vaughan

It has one of the best indexes I've ever seen:
Acts of Parliament
Adam, his internal fluids
Bards, dead, common objects on the sea-shore
Dentist, refuge of the suffering fair
Drains. See Sewage system

Okay, I'm stopping now show less