On Humor in Literature

          I appreciate a well-written book or a well-crafted poem, but what really raises one in my estimation is cleverness and humor.  This preference hadn't struck me as very significant before because those elements are often woven so naturally into the story.  Yet, when I mentally list my favorite stories and poems, the ones on the list inevitably make me laugh more than others I may acknowledge as better-written.  Poetry especially benefits from wit and humor, it tending by nature toward drier reading; even beauty is all the more real and beautiful with the injection of a good chuckle.
           As I suspect is the case with most people, not all humor strikes me as funny.  For instance, I've never much cared for low-brow humor, the kind that mocks others' pain or makes light of bodily functions or faith.  I do enjoy puns and other word plays, but only certain types and in small doses.  Rather, my favorite type of humor is the delightfully unexpected twist, the dry sarcasm, the witty comeback, or the matter-of-fact treatment of the absurd that allows for that "sudden perception of incongruity" (as C.S. Lewis describes the "Joke Proper").  
           I feel this calls for examples, but rather than dredge up a list of my favorite humorous works (which could grow very long, indeed, if I let it), I have decided to offer a sampling of my own poems of a similar type.  I hope you will enjoy them.


Vicarious Emotion

What a horrible day!

Aliens have invaded!

Millions have died!

And worst of all,

I’ve run out of chocolate!

Pass the popcorn, will you?

Boredom

Once on an evening most dull,

in the midst of a mess of his toys,

he threw such a fuss

that his wife listed chores,

and promptly his boredom was cured.

Hysteria

Oh, how she cries, how she wails!

How she shakes and grows pale!

“Sit down, sit down.  

Take a breath and explain.”

No good--she must pace,

and her hyperventilating breath

and scatterbrained thoughts

break her words into pieces

that you laboriously string together.

She’s distraught, you learn,

because everyone hates her

(though you're proof to the contrary).

And added to that,

it’s the end of the world

--or soon it shall be--

and even if it’s not,

she makes you wish it were.

Related posts:
 On Poetry, On Ogden Nash, On Haiku Part 1, On Haiku Part 2, and On Nijuin.