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Very Bad Poetry: Anotated Bibliography
Mar. 10th, 2013 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammerI meant to post this yesterday, but life got, as they say, Life-like. Sorry. Anyway, a bibliography of anthologies of bad poetry.
The Stuffed Owl, ed. D.B. Windham Lewis & Charles Lee (London: 1930) - The classic, with excellent commentary, a wicked index, and an admirable focus on Name Poets being bad on off days (the title is from a Wordsworth sonnet). Organized chronologically by poet. Its main weakness is a tendency to extract even from short poems, and it doesn't extend past Tennyson. Has been in print more or less continuously on both sides of the Atlantic, and so a copy should be easy to find.
The Worst English Poets, ed Christopher Adams (London: 1958) - A slim but choice volume, including several selections I've not seen elsewhere. Organized thematically. Main weaknesses are its slimness and indexlessness. As far as I know, never reprinted, but occasionally can be found used. (My copy was culled from a Texas county library.)
Pegasus Descending: A Book of the Best Bad Verse, ed. James Camp, X.J. Kennedy, & Keith Waldrop (New York: 1971) - Intended as a sequel to TSO, it has very little overlap and extends the selection into the 20th century, but does not always manage to pull off its snark with a straight face. Organized thematically. Intermittently reprinted, can be hard to find.
The Joy of Bad Verse by Nicholas T. Parsons (London: 1988) - Not an anthology but more of a study, but there are many excellent samples to back up his analysis. Eight chapters are devoted to various thematic aspects of badness, followed by a dozen case-studies of bad poets; an appendix gives more extended samples and suggestions for group readings. Parsons did extensive research for this one, and it shows -- many gloriously atrocious poems appear here for the first time since their original publication. Its main weakness is that it is not an anthology, but regardless this is the second most-important of these books to have, after TSO. As far as I know, this was never reprinted across the Puddle, so it can be difficult to find outside of the UK.
Very Bad Poetry, ed. Kathryn Petras & Ross Petras (New York: 1997) - A very weak culling: there's hardly anything that is not in TSO, usually as even briefer extracts, and much of the commentary was digested from same. Organized alphabetically by poet. Mentioned mainly because it's relative recent vintage makes it easy to find.
The World's Worst Poetry: An Anthology, Stephen Robins (London: 2002) - A decent selection, and extracts sometimes extend beyond what TSO gives; it is clear, also, that Robins has studied Parsons carefully. The title is, however, overheated, as it sticks strictly to English and misses some of Adams's best stuff. Organized alphabetically by poet. Also never, that I know, reprinted across the Puddle, but its recent date makes it relatively easy to find.
Teen Angst: A celebration of REALLY BAD poetry, ed. Sara Boyne (New York: 2005) - Not a general anthology: all selections were submitted by their authors at least ten years after writing them as a teenager. As such, it is a good sample of what real teens really write about -- and how they really write. As such, it's a must-have as research material for YA authors, but the rest of us can probably made do with the website these were reprinted from.
Honorable mention goes to B Is for Bad Poetry by Pamela August Russell (New York: 2009), a single author collection. Most of Russell's efforts are not nearly as entertainingly bad as an average page from any of the above, but there are a few excellent gems. A sample:
And that's all I have for this week. I hope you've enjoyed reading these posts as much as I've enjoyed writing them.
---L.
The Stuffed Owl, ed. D.B. Windham Lewis & Charles Lee (London: 1930) - The classic, with excellent commentary, a wicked index, and an admirable focus on Name Poets being bad on off days (the title is from a Wordsworth sonnet). Organized chronologically by poet. Its main weakness is a tendency to extract even from short poems, and it doesn't extend past Tennyson. Has been in print more or less continuously on both sides of the Atlantic, and so a copy should be easy to find.
The Worst English Poets, ed Christopher Adams (London: 1958) - A slim but choice volume, including several selections I've not seen elsewhere. Organized thematically. Main weaknesses are its slimness and indexlessness. As far as I know, never reprinted, but occasionally can be found used. (My copy was culled from a Texas county library.)
Pegasus Descending: A Book of the Best Bad Verse, ed. James Camp, X.J. Kennedy, & Keith Waldrop (New York: 1971) - Intended as a sequel to TSO, it has very little overlap and extends the selection into the 20th century, but does not always manage to pull off its snark with a straight face. Organized thematically. Intermittently reprinted, can be hard to find.
The Joy of Bad Verse by Nicholas T. Parsons (London: 1988) - Not an anthology but more of a study, but there are many excellent samples to back up his analysis. Eight chapters are devoted to various thematic aspects of badness, followed by a dozen case-studies of bad poets; an appendix gives more extended samples and suggestions for group readings. Parsons did extensive research for this one, and it shows -- many gloriously atrocious poems appear here for the first time since their original publication. Its main weakness is that it is not an anthology, but regardless this is the second most-important of these books to have, after TSO. As far as I know, this was never reprinted across the Puddle, so it can be difficult to find outside of the UK.
Very Bad Poetry, ed. Kathryn Petras & Ross Petras (New York: 1997) - A very weak culling: there's hardly anything that is not in TSO, usually as even briefer extracts, and much of the commentary was digested from same. Organized alphabetically by poet. Mentioned mainly because it's relative recent vintage makes it easy to find.
The World's Worst Poetry: An Anthology, Stephen Robins (London: 2002) - A decent selection, and extracts sometimes extend beyond what TSO gives; it is clear, also, that Robins has studied Parsons carefully. The title is, however, overheated, as it sticks strictly to English and misses some of Adams's best stuff. Organized alphabetically by poet. Also never, that I know, reprinted across the Puddle, but its recent date makes it relatively easy to find.
Teen Angst: A celebration of REALLY BAD poetry, ed. Sara Boyne (New York: 2005) - Not a general anthology: all selections were submitted by their authors at least ten years after writing them as a teenager. As such, it is a good sample of what real teens really write about -- and how they really write. As such, it's a must-have as research material for YA authors, but the rest of us can probably made do with the website these were reprinted from.
Honorable mention goes to B Is for Bad Poetry by Pamela August Russell (New York: 2009), a single author collection. Most of Russell's efforts are not nearly as entertainingly bad as an average page from any of the above, but there are a few excellent gems. A sample:
The Perfect Love Poem
Every time
I see your face
it reminds me
of you.
And that's all I have for this week. I hope you've enjoyed reading these posts as much as I've enjoyed writing them.
---L.
