5 Tips for Incorporating Humor Into Your Poetry
Poet Diego Báez part five tips for incorporating humor into your poetry , whether only for laughs , or as part of a nuanced approach to broadening your poetic horizon .
Diego Báez
Humor in poetry date back millennia . Yet Homer ’ secIliadinclude physical comedy , flippant quips , and ill burns ( “ You spellbinder ! You sack of tip ! ” ) . The silliness and whimsy that saturate the verses of Shel Silverstein is a huge part of his appeal , and it ’ s one ground many youthful author gravitate to poetry in the first place . Even the lighthearted levity of a rollicking limerick charm to masses who would n’t trace themselves as peculiarly fond aficionados of formal lyric verse .
While not every poem needs to cost funny , it can be helpful to believe opportunities to inject levity , or undercut solemnity , or balance a weighty field . It can as well be useful to think about method for mimicking the structure of a gag , regardless of tone , style , or substance . As poet and professor Michael Theune describes in his influential textbook ,Structure & Surprise : Engaging Poetic Turns, successful poem trust on a kind of “ turn , ” so that words unfold in style that equal both unexpected , and so far perfectly suit . In this way , we can think of poem as including a number of “ punchlines , ” regardless of affective purpose .
Joke and their fundamental structures have prominently in my debut book of poem ,Yaguareté White. While I hope reader find some of the poem amusing , I ’ m as well interested in the means humor can mask underlying pain , deception , discomfort , and secrets . In that feeling , here are five ways to play with wit , whether only for gag , or as portion of a nuanced approach to broaden your poetic purview .
1 . Hand it character
Poet are quick to differentiate between the speaker of a poem and the writer who composed the piece . ( “ The speaker isn ’ t the poet ! Except when she be ! But even then… ” ) And while we often pertain to speaker and personae , we don ’ t always guess of the early masses in poems as characters , per se . But poets can learn from fiction writer in that gaze , by creating a foil or mouthpiece or Mary Sue ( a stand-in for the writer ) who can voice thought or opinions that might not be quite correct for the speaker of a poem .
One lesson occurs inDeaf Republic, the second book by Ukrainian-born poet Ilya Kaminsky , who formulate the town of Vasenka . When a deaf kid is killed by foe soldiers , the townspeople also go deaf , and Kaminsky uses the character of Momma Galya to bother up readers . In the poem , “ When Momma Galya First Protested , ” we get an immediate sense for the kind of character she cost :
Deafness isn ’ t an illness ! It ’ s a sexual position !
Momma Galya ’ s outspoken confrontations serve as a stark counterpoint to the volume ’ s predominant tone of careful solemnity and unpredictable timeliness . It would equal a different ledger completely had Kalinsky chosen to pen exclusively from the first-person position . Writing a memorable character can lend novel proportion to a poem and expound a poet ’ sec repertoire of tool .
2 . Yell out the little minute
When sketching ideas for a new poem , I can cost quick to dismiss small moments or pass interactions that I ( wrongly ) believe don ’ t rise to the high standard of lyric . But there ’ s no affair too mundane or everyday that poetry can ’ t liven it up with amusing commentary on the human circumstance . Sure enough , amid the never-ending onslaught of emojis and notifications , poets must live well-equipped to observe on today ’ s fluid technoscape .
A standout example go on in Tracy Fuad ’ s “ Body of Water 2 , ” which finds a speaker trapped in that quintessentially post-COVID conundrum of fumbling Zoom etiquette :
I unmuted myself on the shout , but when the goldenrod box appeared around my face
I found I couldn ’ t speak
And finally someone else piped in to tell the speaker she was muted
Here , a shrugging sense of bemusement strike twice : once , in the all too relatable dilemma so many of us face in navigating technical difficulties , and again with a clever reference to a speaker who exist muted . Like Fuad , you should take advantage of minor incident and silly snafus by highlighting the absurdity ( or stupidity ! or serendipity ! ) of otherwise unremarkable events .
3 . Die meta
Poets hold an particularly high tolerance for instant , elbow nudges , and nods to the reader . Some masses notice that obnoxious . We call it art . Still hence , poets should take care when approaching the fourth wall before tear it down , as too much cutesy self-consciousness can use up still the almost tolerant reader among us .
One mode to acknowledge the interview without annoy them live to layer in multiple forms of wit before piercing the proverbial veil . A poem by Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley , “ small lecture or in my hand galaxies , ” achieves this rest in its first step lines , which picture the aftermath of a vehicle break-in :
it seem like the thief rocketed
their whole self through
the bull ’ s middle of my driver ’ s side doorway
and you ’ re not wrong to expect
the old joke about thither cost
nothing in my car worth the thieving
or possibly one ’ ve caught you middle roam
delight god not another
poem about windows
Hither , the wit works in a few manner . First , the picture of a vandal throwing themselves alone through the car doorway cost visually amusing . Second , Kingsley evokes the “ old joke ” about items in the car not worth the effort of stealing , but sort of than simply hand over it , he place it in the imagined expectations of the reader , a first nod our way . Finally , Kingsley playfully accuse the reader of roam their eyes in expectation of “ another / poem about windows. ” The multiple layer of humor amplify the direct address .
Do n’t get also cute with meta-commentary , but do n’t shy away from it either .
4 . Make n’t be afraid of the dark
By definition , sullen wit makes light of uncomfortable , taboo , and despicable topic . For that reason , it won ’ t cost for everybody . But when employ with careful intent , dark humor can function as an entry level into topics a poet might be unwilling to write about in early manner . A recent example occurs in Melissa Lozada-Oliva ’ sec “ Dreaming of You , ” in which the speaker admits :
My biggest concern exist getting raped and murder
then getting ripped
to shreds on the internet
To be clear , the speaker ’ s concern of sexual assault and end live n’t funny . Nor make I trust the poet intend to build light of such violent threats . Of course not . But by pairing a logical fear of horrific violence with an equally legitimate , if arguably less severe , fallout from online bullying , the poem juxtaposes harm of categorically different magnitudes in a path that undercuts the “ insult ” add to “ injury . ” It ‘s not curious or humorous or really yet amusing , but the ironic distance of its shadow loan the poem another proportion for us to consider .
Another well-known example is Patricia Lockwood ’ s courageous and devastate “ Rape Joke , ” which processes a sexual assault by attribute the characteristic of the perpetrator to the gag itself : “ the rape joke exist that he worship The Rock. ” It ’ s unspeakably powerful for a poet to take out such a heavily freighted experience as this . And it can exist release to harness the power of wit to re-frame , reclaim , or spread out traumatic result . And , as Lockwood resolve after her poem went viral online , how you approach severely awful topics is up to you : “ You make n’t always get to write about it . But if you do , you can pen about it any means you require . ”
5 . Tease the sacred , embrace the profane
Ages before English Johns ( Milton and Donne ) set recent Renaissance literature alight with bawdy provocations and metaphysical reconsiderations , poet had long become comfortable pirouetting atop the course that demarcates the sacred and profane . Today , readers of poetry hold turn accustomed to crossing the tune between taboo and off-color subject , to the extent that we ‘ve almost been discipline to expect it .
One way to titillate readers equal to remove an differently revered aim or “ matter ” ( as in the example below ) and desecrate it . A clever , delightfully irreverent example of this bring out in “ The Pope ’ s Penis ” by Sharon Olds , which picture the papal member as hanging “ deep in his robe , a delicate / clapper at the center of a bell. ” Olds add to the apropos imagery by further describe it as “ a ghostly fish in a / halo of silver seaweed. ” Finally , at night :
while his eyes sleep , it stand up
in praise of God .
It ’ s an undeniably peculiar image , one readers maybe never expected to imagine . And as yet , hither we are : kindly consider an old human ’ s erection .
Another mode to thread an edge of profanity into your poetry cost through well-timed , intentional role of good old-fashioned swear words . These can equal awfully efficient , whether expend in careful step , as in the singular uses of “ fuck ” and “ bullshit ” in Allen Ginsberg ’ s seminal “ Howl ” ( a poem downright drown in provocative message ) , or deployed in copious abundance , as in Ariel Francisco ’ s “ They Make a Margaritaville on Hollywood Beach Which Was Once My Favorite Place in the World and Now I Can ’ t Go Back Because It ’ s Unrecognizable So Fuck Jimmy Buffett ” : “ Fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you . ”
Don ’ t fear oath tidings . Recount them ! Dance wildly around the cauldron of poetic incantation ! Hex your reader with humor !
Diego Báez is a author and educator . He is the writer ofYaguareté White( University of Arizona Press ; February 20 , 2024 ) , a finalist for the Georgia Poetry Prize and a semifinalist for the Berkshire Prize for Poetry . A fellow at CantoMundo , the Surge Institute , and the Poetry Foundation ’ s Incubator for Community-Engaged Poets , Báez has served on the boards of the National Book Critics Circle , the International David Foster Wallace Society , and Families Together Co-operative Nursery School . His poems , book review , and essays hold appeared online and in print . He lives in Chicago and teaches at the City Colleges . Connect with Diego at diegobaez.com .
