[ book tip by Marie Fowler ] ‘There was lady from Nantucket,
who spent her whole life in a bucket,
she couldn’t get out,
because there wasn’t a spout,
she’d try, but give up and go..’ 

That’s not in the book. If that had been written some years ago maybe it would have had a chance, or maybe not.  

This collection of poems edited by Griff Rhys Jones brings together some more carefully crafted humorous poems, including writings by Pam Ayres, Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, Spike Milligan, Edward Lear, John Agard’s ‘Coffee in Heaven’ and the anonymous author of  ‘I have a gentle cock’. Poems date from the seventeenth century up to more recent poems. Michael Flanders’ magical, ‘The Hippopotamus Song’ will have you humming along to yourself (if you remember the Flanders and Swann song): 

‘Mud, mud, glorious mud, Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood!’ 

If you’ve not read a ‘Nation’s Favourite’ poetry anthology before, there are several books in the series, including a general anthology, love poems, poems of remembrance and this collection of comic poems. The anthology is an excellent and varied collection of different styles of comic poetry and is well worth a read. I think my favourite has to be Clive James’ brilliant, ‘The Book of my Enemy has been Remaindered’… and as he says ‘And I am pleased’.

[ book info ] Jones (editor), Griff Rhys: The Nation's Favourite Comic Poems. (Book language: English) BBC, London, 1998 (1998). ISBN: 0-563-38451-4.