Nonsense verse

Nonsense verse

Nonsense verse is a form of poetry, normally composed for humorous effect, which is paradoxical, silly, witty, whimsical or just plain strange. However not all humorous verse is nonsense. For instance a poem like

Algy saw the bear.

The bear saw Algy.

The bear was bulgy.

The bulge was Algy.

is humorous but not nonsense. Whereas

The elephant is a bonnie bird.

It flits from bough to bough.

It makes its nest in a rhubarb tree

And whistles like a cow.

is classic nonsense.

As is

One fine day in the middle of the night,

Two dead men got up to fight.

Back-to-back they faced each other,

Drew their swords and shot each other.

A paralyzed donkey walking by,

kicked a blind man in the eye,

Sent him through a rubber wall,

into a dry ditch and drowned them all.

There is a long tradition of nonsense verse in English, Many limericks for instance. Among the poets noted for nonsense verse are Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Ogden Nash and Spike Milligan.