A Choice of Comic and Curious Verse

by J.M. Cohen (Editor)

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Poetry, Humor

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

John Michael Cohen was a prolific translator of European literature into English.

Cohen launched his translation career with the first English translation of poems by Boris Pasternak, then unknown outside the Soviet Union. His translation of Pasternak garnered praise from American poet John Ashbery, in his book Other Traditions.

In 1946, on the strength of a commission from Penguin Books for a major translation of Don Quixote, Cohen quit his teaching job to dedicate himself full-time to writing and translation.

In addition to his translations of major works of Spanish and French literature for Penguin, Cohen also edited several important anthologies of Spanish and Latin American literature, as well as many of the Penguin Classics.
He played an instrumental role in the Latin Boom of the 1960s by translating works by Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz, and Carlos Fuentes, and by bringing the works of Gabriel García Márquez to the attention of his future English publisher.
He also wrote a number of works of literary criticism and biography.

Reviews

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was visiting in Mumbai from the 19th of August to the 21st 2015, and came across this quirky book at my relatives' house. It would be incorrect to say that I read it fully, but I did a quick scan, and some of the poems were delightful.

Two samples:

Sigmund Freud
Who's afreud of the big bad dream?
Things are never what they seem;
Daddy's bowler, Auntie's thimbles,
Actually are shocking symbols.
Still, I think, a pig's a pig-
Ah, there, symbol-minded Sig!

(Ogden Nash - who else?)

The following combines Indian philosophy with cricket-not a bad combination at all! I forget the poet's name.

Brahma
If the wild bowler thinks he bowls,
Or if the batman thinks he's bowled,
They know not, poor misguided souls,
They, too, shall perish unconsoled.
I am the batsman and the bat,
I am the bowler and the ball,
The umpire, the pavilion cat,
The roller, the pitch, and stumps and all.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry anthology consists of works selected and arranged by J.M. Cohen with the overarching theme of light-heartedness. Some of the poems are outright funny, others are more quirky, corny, or tongue-in-cheek. This edition was originally published in the 1970’s, though there was apparently a preceding edition that was largely the same that dates to the late-1950’s. The poems are almost all metered and rhymed, in part because that was still the dominant mode of poetry when these works were first published, and also because metered and rhymed verse conveys a jocular tone. Forms associated with comedic delivery, such as the limerick, are well-represented.

The 450-plus poems by about 180 authors (actually many more owing to the fact that the biggest contributor by far is Anonymous) are arranged into 22 thematic categories that are clearly meant to be more whimsical than categorical. The poets include those who are most well-known for playful verse such as Ogden Nash, Lewis Carroll, and Edward Lear, but also light works by poets known for seriously toned work (e.g. Alexander Pope, John Betjeman, and W.H. Auden.) There are also plenty by authors known for mixing light and serious work, such as G.K. Chesterton, Robert Graves, and Hilaire Belloc. There are also a large number of poets who you’re unlikely to have heard of unless you’re a literary historian. Included in the collection are some widely anthologized works such as Belloc’s “Matilda,” Carroll’s “Jabberwocky,” and Aldous Huxley’s “Second Philosopher’s Song,” but there are a great many more that will be unfamiliar to most (and a few that may be familiar as graffiti on a restroom wall.)

I enjoyed this book. It turned me onto some poets with whom I’d been unfamiliar. The works included, as one would expect of light verse, are quite readable (though there are some outdated references here and there.) If you stumble onto a decently-priced copy, pick it up.

[Neil]

Picked up in a junk shop in the 1970s this has amused and entertained me over many many years. It originally cost 2/6 the year after I was born, perhaps the best half a crown ever spent, although I doubt if I paid more than sixpence fir it, and that in old money.

Hilarious and comic nonsense and daft verse culled from virtually all the poets if the last two hundred years, the contents are arranged in chapters named as ‘unlikely stories’, ‘burlesque and parody’, ‘rigmarole and nonsense’ and ‘protests and expostulations’ just to name a few. This is a book to keep close by your bed fur the long nights when one needs a bit of cheer and a good belly laugh. Recommended

[J Grimsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some delightful poems some not so but as an anthology this is what you would expect.