If you like sonnets, MetaFilter's got 'em, thanks to a post by La thomas j wise, who has a highly literate blog. (And even if sonnets aren't your thing, you should check out the thread for the Kenneth Koch I snuck in: "Fresh Air" is one of the funniest poems you'll ever lay eyes on.)
Posted by languagehat at September 25, 2003 10:37 PMAre you familiar with Koch's "Thank You and Other Poems"? I think "Lunch" is one of the funniest poems you'll ever lay eyes on, to borrow a trope.
Posted by: Jeremy Osner at September 26, 2003 08:00 AMThanks, I'll look for it.
Posted by: language hat at September 26, 2003 09:38 AMHey, here you go; courtesy of my moderately intelligent scanner:
"Lunch", by Kenneth Koch. I am just now looking at it to pick out a line or two to quote at you as a teaser, but there is far too much beauty there to choose any of it out. Just come over for lunch!
"Let us give lunch to the lunch -- But how shall we do it?"
Magnifique! Many thanks!
Posted by: language hat at September 26, 2003 10:07 PMFunny... everyone seems to pick up on these lines as the characteristic lines of the poem. But to my ear, it is one of the weakest couplets. It does not scan properly -- which it could be made to if "let us" were contracted to "let's"; and "serve" would be better in place of "give" I think. Minor quibbles; but these are flaws in an otherwise almost perfect poem. (Indeed the whole last stanza is of a lesser quality than the rest.) If I had to pick a pair of lines as representative, I think I might go with, "The dancing wagon has come! Here is the dancing wagon!/ Come up and get lessons -- here is lemonade and grammar!" or "But if I do not wish to be fair, if I wish to eat lunch/ Undisturbed --? The light of day shines down. The world continues." or...
Posted by: Jeremy Osner at September 27, 2003 08:16 AM