I think that I shall never see
A poem as trivial as “Trees.”…

Dear SunWinkers!

Joyce Kilmer’s 1913 poem “Trees” is an easy and favorite target for parody. I was shocked to learn that “Trees” was originally published in the prestigious Poetry magazine. (I was also shocked to learn that Joyce Kilmer is a guy.) And you know, looking at it again, it’s not the worst poem ever, especially for 1913.

Writing parody can be lots of fun, and it can improve your technique and even give you a new appreciation for the poem you are lampooning.

This week, I wrote a parody of James Whitcomb Riley’s “When the Frost Is On the Punkin,” a poem I grew up with. It (the original) is a celebration of crisp autumn mornings on the farm. I heard some baseball commentator say, “The pitcher’s on the rubber, and the batter’s in the box…” and said to myself, “OMG I have to write that!”

“When The Pitcher’s On the Rubber”

In this column, I try not to posture as an expert (my degree’s in music) so much as invite you to join me on my journey to become a better poet. Most of what I write and cite here is stuff I’ve newly discovered myself. Accordingly, I use my own work as an example frequently, and I think that’s okay. Hope you don’t mind.

So there are a few things I want to mention about my process in writing “When the Pitcher.”

Sometimes I’ll begin a line verbatim, then take it somewhere else, perhaps by making a pun out of the original, as “…the chirping of the Blue Jays” and “…if such a thing could be/As the Angels dashing all our hopes by winning four ta three…”

The original is about fall in rural America, so I throw in some tongue-in-cheek rustic images: “Oh it sets my heart ta poundin’ like a chain gang breakin’ rocks…” “…cracklin’ atmosphere even the Harvest Dance can’t top…”

I note that the original employs only masculine rhymes (tock, shock), never feminine rhymes (shiver, quiver), so I follow suit, in addition to adhering to the original’s rhyme scheme and meter.

Of course, like Ernest Thayer’s “Casey At the Bat,” you want some droll inside humor relating to baseball to make it entertaining. “…When ivy balls get lost” refers to the ground rule at Chicago’s Wrigley Field regarding when the ball gets hopelessly lost in the ivy-covered outfield wall. (It’s a ground-rule double, but only if you don’t reach into the ivy and try to find it.)

When writing a parody, you need to decide what to parody and what to write about. It helps if the poem (or author) being parodied is instantly recognizable. Popular targets include:

• The Village Blacksmith (Longfellow)
• The Arrow and the Song (Longfellow)
• Paul Revere’s Ride (yup, Longfellow)
• A Visit From St. Nicholas (Moore)
• If (Kipling)
• Gunga Din (Kipling)
• Kubla Khan (Coleridge)
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Coleridge)
• The Raven (Poe)
• Trees
• Casey At the Bat
• anything from Mother Goose
• and many more…

(Making these into hot links is a lot of work, so do me a solid and just Google them if you want to read them.)

You’ve probably never heard of Frank Jacobs, but if you’re a fan of MAD Magazine, you’ve read his work. He is the Parody Master:

I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree;
I’d hoped, of course, that there would be
A tree still left for me to see;
Some lumber firm from out of town
Has chopped the whole darn forest down;
But I’ll show up those dirty skunks—
I’ll go and write a poem called “Trunks.”

© Frank Jacobs

If you are inspired to delve further into the craft of parody, run, don’t walk, to your nearest laptop and order Jacobs’ Pitiless Parodies and Other Outrageous Verse.

The Prompt

Really?

You have to ask?

Okay…

1. Choose a poem to lampoon.
   

2. Choose an apt subject.*
   

3. Write a parody.

*Take “Trees,” for example. (Please.) You could write about trees. You could write about ecology. You could write about bad poetry. Or you could write about, well, absolutely anything. To wit, Jacobs’

I think that I shall never see
A shy or modest referee;
Whenever there’s a clipping call,
He struts off yardage with the ball…

 

Post your response on your blog. If it’s a WordPress blog, tag it WeSun. If you don’t have a blog, put it in a Note on Facebook or some such functionality, something you can link to.

Then comment to this post with the link to your response.

I get a lot of folks asking, “Did I meet the requirements?” I’m thrilled when you read this and then write something, anything. For me, here, it’s not about “getting it right.” It’s about inspiring you to write. But…if you would like a candid (but still very kind) critique of your response relative to the topic, please include “critique welcome” in your comment-with-link or the response post itself.

I reblog this column at WritingEssentialGroup.com (you should be following that blog, too) and will post the links to your responses there. I will also comment on all responses.

Please don’t just put your response in a comment here on the SunWinks! blog. It won’t travel to the WEG group along with the post. (Okay, I confess, if you simply must put it in a comment, if it’s just not worth the trouble otherwise, I can link to it in a pinch. But it’s much preferable if when I post your link it takes the reader to your blog.)

Finally, if you enjoy this, please be a good citizen and share this with your own friends and poetry circles. Thanks.

Love,

Doug

© 2014 Douglas J. Westberg. All Rights Reserved. Please share, reblog, link to, but do not copy or alter.