# Incredibly bad poetry that was popular in its day for some reason **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 4, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135 "2013-06-04T17:52:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/21 "2013-06-05T02:50:30Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I don’t know if any of Longfellow’s work makes the cut for “_incredibly_ bad”, … can you, off the top of your head, recite more than a line from any of his poems? There was a little girl and she had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good she was very very good , But when she was bad she was horrid. (That’s how I remember it. Googling tellws me it’s slightly a misquote) By the shores of Gitche Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/22 "2013-06-05T02:55:47Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > (off the top of my head) > > \*Listen, my children, and you shall hear > Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere > 'Twas the 18th of April in '75 > Hardly a man is now alive > Who remembers that famous day, and year > > He said to his friend > If the British march > By land or sea from the town tonight > Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch > Of the North Church tower as a signal light > > One if by land > And two if by sea > And I on the opposite shore will be > Ready to ride and spread the alarm > To every Middlesex village and farm > For the countryfolk to be up and to arm > > Then he said goodnight > And with muffled oar > Silently rowed to the Charleston shore > Just as the moon rose over the bay > Where swinging wide in her moorings lay > The Somerset, British man 'o war > A phantom ship, with each mast and spar > Across the moon, like a prison bar > And a huge black hulk > That was magnified > By its own reflection in the tide…\* and the entire rest of this poem, which is just one segment of Longfellow’s _Tales from a Wayside Inn_. My mother can do the whole poem! I know it up to about the same point you stopped at. My grandfather read Longfellow. He only went to school through the eighth grade, but never stopped reading. We had portions of Longfellow’s _Evangeline_ in my eigth grade English lit book, and I will be always grateful for it, because that poem saved my butt one day. We had an assignment to do a dramatic reading, in front of the class. I forgot all about it, and the only book I had with me was our textbook. While trying to pretend I was paying attention to the other readers I flipped through the book, desperately seeking anything that would be suitable. So _Evangeline_ it was, the part from the end where, as an elderly nun, she finds Gabriel in the poorhouse hospital. Perhaps the throb in my voice was from the text, actually it was desperation. The teacher sat at the back, making notes as we spoke and writing comments. I couldn’t believe that I got an A- , with the comment _“Obviously well prepared”_ ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/23 "2013-06-05T03:04:39Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > For atrocious poetry I give you James Whitcomb Riley … Will I embarrass myself by admitting that I’ve always liked _Little Orphant Annie_ ? It has to be read aloud, with considerable emphasis on each “Don’t! Watch! Out!” ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/24 "2013-06-05T03:06:34Z")
Jessie Pope wrote some popular yet excruciatingly jingoistic and simplistic verse urging her countrymen to take up arms and join the jolly, jolly good time of the Great War, such as [Who’s For the Game?](http://allpoetry.com/poem/8605785-Whos_for_the_Game_-by-Jessie_Pope), - an excerpt: “Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played, The red crashing game of a fight? Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid? And who thinks he’d rather sit tight?” Pope inspired actual poet Wilfred Owen who actually fought and later died in the Great War to write the brutal, haunting and actually good answer poem [Dulce Et Decorum Est](http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html), which was initially dedicated to her and later cryptically dedicated “To a certain poetess.” ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/25 "2013-06-05T03:18:08Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Except perhaps for William McGonagall. If you can genuinely love “The Tay Bridge Disaster” then you still might not be a sack of uncultured swine but you probably need some psychiatric help It ends even worse than it begins, thusly: > [@](#): > > “Oh! Ill-fated bridge of the silv’ry Tay, > I now must conclude my lay > By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay, > That your central girders would not have given way, > At least many sensible men do say, > Had they been supported on each side with buttresses > At least many sensible men confesses, > For the stronger we our houses do build, > The less chance we have of being killed.” Better still, that effort was the middle work of an unplanned \*trilogy \*about the same bridge: [QUOTE=wikipedia] McGonagall had previously written a poem in praise of the Tay Bridge: “The Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay” “With your numerous arches and pillars in so grand array”. Once the new replacement bridge had been built, without the least feeling of irony, he proceeded to compose an ode to the new construction: “An Address to the New Tay Bridge” “Strong enough all windy storms to defy”. [/QUOTE] Anyone who dares to rhyme “buttresses” with “men confesses” is alright by me. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/26 "2013-06-05T03:25:04Z")
Re: Jessie Pope, I should also add [The Call](http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/20century/topic_1_05/jpope_call.htm). An excerpt: Who’s for the trench— Are you, my laddie? Who’ll follow French— Will you, my laddie? Who’s fretting to begin, Who’s going out to win? And who wants to save his skin— Do you, my laddie? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/27 "2013-06-05T03:27:38Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Will I embarrass myself by admitting that I’ve always liked _Little Orphant Annie_ ? **It has to be read aloud** , with considerable emphasis on each “Don’t! Watch! Out!” That is true of all of these poem. The recitation is half of the effect, and folks back then liked it if you put some oomph into it. Not like the Steven Wright school of deadpan poetry reading popular recently. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/28 "2013-06-05T06:07:13Z")
I’m a bit apprehensive here, about offending Australian participants on the board; but I’ll go ahead and mention the much-loved late 19th / early 20th century Australian bush balladeer, A.B. “Banjo” Paterson. It would be unfair to call him across-the-board “incredibly bad” – he wrote some stirring stuff – but I find parts of his output highly groan-worthy. This largely because, of all the rhymesters I’ve ever come across, he’s pretty well the greatest practitioner of utterly dreadful forced rhymes. I recall a ballad of his, concerning knockabout goings-on involving a travelling circus and the country towns of Narrabri and Gunnedah. It begins approximately (this from memory): “The circus swooped down on Narrabri town, And since Narrabri people quite moneyed are, They decided to stay for a week and a day Before they moved onward to Gunnedah.” And as the piece goes on, the rhymes become more and more contrived and contorted. Also, “Banjo” has a habit of frequently ending lines with “self” – “yourself”, “myself”, etc. The trouble with this, is that English has very few rhymes for “self” – one is pretty well restricted to “shelf”, “elf”, and “pelf”(=money). So he goes ahead and works one of those into the verse, in order to get the rhyme – which leads to some very stilted wording. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ecks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ecks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ecks)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/29 "2013-06-05T13:03:55Z")
There was a news story a few months ago about a Victorian poet who was quite popular despite being bad. Apparently some graduate student decided to do a thesis on them, and discovered the reason for the popularity- towards the end of the big thick book of bad poetry was a section filled with good pornography… ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/30 "2013-06-05T13:11:13Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Will I embarrass myself by admitting that I’ve always liked _Little Orphant Annie_ ? It has to be read aloud, with considerable emphasis on each “Don’t! Watch! Out!” Riley was called (and called himself) the Children’s Poet. Read “Little Orphant Annie” or “Nine Little Goblins” to a group of kids and they’ll want to hear it again. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/31 "2013-06-05T14:12:46Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I hate these threads. I always end up loving a lot of what posters are saying is obvious drivel, and I just end up feeling like a sack of uncultured swine. > [@phouka](#): > > Come sit by me, **Nzinga** , and we shall all the pleasures of crappy lit’ry taste prove. No, by me! You can help me straighten out my Longfellow! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/32 "2013-06-05T15:00:43Z")
Has anyone here ever read [_The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse_](http://www.amazon.com/Stuffed-Owl-Anthology-Verse-Review/dp/1590170385)? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/33 "2013-06-05T15:01:39Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > No, by me! You can help me straighten out my Longfellow! :dubious: If you know what he means. Watch out, **Nzinga**. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/34 "2013-06-05T15:26:08Z")
> [@Flywheel](#): > > Does anyone still read [Rod McKuen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_McKuen)? Hey! I used to like his stuff, even though it was maudlin and morose. It worked better when Glen Yarbrough put it to song. ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/35 "2013-06-05T15:29:31Z")
One of my college English Lit texts, an anthology of mid to late 17th-century poetry, commented that Francis Quarles was an example of the total inadequacy of popular taste because he was the most popular poet of the age, far surpassing Milton, Marvell and Dryden. The Professor did not assign any of Quarles’ work to read, and I was never curious enough examine them on my own until a few minutes ago: A Divine Rapture \*E’EN like two little bank-dividing brooks, That wash the pebbles with their wanton streams, And having ranged and search’d a thousand nooks, Meet both at length in silver-breasted Thames, Where in a greater current they conjoin: So I my Best-beloved’s am; so He is mine. E’en so we met; and after long pursuit, E’en so we joined; we both became entire; No need for either to renew a suit, For I was flax, and He was flames of fire: Our firm-united souls did more than twine; So I my Best-beloved’s am; so He is mine. If all those glittering Monarchs, that command The servile quarters of this earthly ball, Should tender in exchange their shares of land, I would not change my fortunes for them all: Their wealth is but a counter to my coin: The world 's but theirs; but my Beloved’s mine.\* Pretty dull, and seemingly homoerotic in theme, although I do recall from the college text that Quarles’ work was devotional, so the “Beloved” of this poem probably refers to Christ. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/36 "2013-06-05T15:33:01Z")
Joyce Kilmer’s _Trees_ is universally known and pretty bad. I’m assuming his tragic death in WW1 has something to do with it’s popularity. > [@](#): > > I think that I shall never see > A poem lovely as a tree. > A tree whose hungry mouth is prest > Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast; > A tree that looks at God all day, > And lifts her leafy arms to pray; > A tree that may in summer wear > A nest of robins in her hair; Etc. etc. I have no problem imagining it being recited by Henry Gibson. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/37 "2013-06-05T15:45:27Z")
Interesting that two people have quoted the _Song of Hiawatha_ from the third canto: > [@](#): > > By the shores of Gitche Gumee, > By the shining Big-Sea-Water, > Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, > Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis. I’ve always associated “By the shores of Gitche Gumee” with the more widely-read 22nd (and last) canto: > [@](#): > > By the shore of Gitche Gumee, > By the shining Big-Sea-Water, > At the doorway of his wigwam, > In the pleasant Summer morning, > Hiawatha stood and waited. But either way, the poem is read and remembered. “By the shores of Gitche Gumee”, “This is the forest primeval”, and “Listen my children and you shall hear” are three of the most famous lines in American poetry, and I am at a loss as to any standard by which Longfellow could be considered “forgotten”. (Except maybe to the extent that poetry itself is forgotten.) ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/38 "2013-06-05T18:00:54Z")
The cause of the 20th-century total collapse of the poetry of the English language must surely lie at the door of the aesthetically fraudulent literary movement which enshrined T.S. Eliot as a master. Eliot’s attempts at high-brow verse are in fact unfathomable, inartisic pedantry. Here are the first few lines of an effort I was exposed to in college: GERONTION \*Here I am, an old man in a dry month, Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain. I was neither at the hot gates Nor fought in the warm rain Nor knee deep in the salt marsh, heaving a cutlass, Bitten by flies, fought. \* How many people here know what “the hot gates” refer to? Those he saw a certain 2005 movie don’t count. Also, I have for over 40 years been trying to find someone who can tell me what “the salt marsh” was. The word “cutlass” and historical juxtaposition with “hot gates” brings Salamis to mind as an educated guess, especially if one discovers that “sal” is Greek for salt. Alas, Wiki informs us that “amis” in Greek means “in the midst of” and so “Salamis” roughly means “surrounded by salt (water)”. Maybe know-it-all Eliot, who could read innumerable languages (even if he could write decent poetry in none of them) was aware of a secondary definition for “amis” meaning “marsh.” Online English to Greek dictionaries have not helped. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/39 "2013-06-05T18:57:22Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Has anyone here ever read [_The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse_](http://www.amazon.com/Stuffed-Owl-Anthology-Verse-Review/dp/1590170385)? Gack! Yes, I’ve got a copy of it at home somewhere… ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135/40 "2013-06-05T19:18:08Z")
Katz’s Deli in NYC has a sign that says “Send a salami to your boy in the Army.” I love that it’s supposed to rhyme. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-bad-poetry-that-was-popular-in-its-day-for-some-reason/660135.md?page=3)