National Poetry Month: Limericks and Concrete Poems

Earlier in this National Poetry Month of April, I posted about book spine haiku.  Besides haiku, two other poetry forms you might remember from your childhood are limericks and concrete poems.  While the Tarleton Libraries have many books with adult versions of these poetic forms, this post focuses on a few children's books in our Curriculum Collection, used by future teachers, on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library on the Stephenville campus.

Limericks usually tell a story about a person, in an exaggerated way meant to make the limerick funny. A limerick must have five lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 must rhyme with each other. Lines 3 and 4 must rhyme with each other, as well. Limericks are also written in anapestic meter, which means that in each three-syllable word or phrase, the emphasis is always on the third syllable. Lines 1, 2, and 5 each contain three anapestics, or eight to ten syllables, and lines 3 and 4 contain two anapestics, or five to seven syllables.¹


These poems often start out with "There was an old [someone] of [somewhere]."

Edward Lear, of course, is the master of limericks, particularly nonsense for children.  Edward Lear from the Poetry for Young People series, edited by Edward Mendelson and illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith, contains a number of his limericks.

Another fun book is Grimericks, written by Susan Pearson and illustrated by Gus Grimly, contains 20 "grim limericks" (hence the title) with ghoulish characters pictured throughout.

More examples of limericks in the library's collections are here:  https://zeus.tarleton.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&bquery=limerick&type=1&site=eds-live.

In concrete poetry, the words of a poem are arranged on the page to form a visual image that relates to the subject of the poem.²

Sometimes the poems clearly forms shapes.  Joan Bransfield Graham's Flicker Flash, with illustrations by Nancy Davis, has poetry about light.  The arrangement of words in the poem “Firefly” is in the shape of a firefly.


The first poem in the book A Poke in the I is called "A Seeing Poem," and the words in the poem create an image of a light bulb above a person's head.  In later poems in this book, selected by Paul Janeczko with illustrations by Chris Raschka, the imagery is even more subtle.

More examples of concrete poetry in the library's collections are here:  https://zeus.tarleton.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&bquery=%26quot%3bconcrete+poetry%26quot%3b+OR+%26quot%3bconcrete+poems%26quot%3b&cli0=FC&clv0=Y&type=0&site=eds-live.


¹Comstock, Nancy. "Limerick." Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature, 2014. EBSCOhost, https://zeus.tarleton.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=98402281&site=eds-live.

²Fuller, Melynda. "Concrete Poetry." Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature, 2017. EBSCOhost, https://zeus.tarleton.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=87321587&site=eds-live.

Book Spine Haiku: Libraries and Poetry

In honor of National Library Week and National Poetry Month, here is a relevant book spine haiku:

Lost in a good book,

here lies the librarian,

the lifelong reader.

-by Amanda Pape

Book spine poems are formed by arranging books so that the titles on their spines make a poem (and no, it doesn't have to rhyme). Sometimes they're composed of many books, but book spine haiku uses only three books.

A haiku is a traditional Japanese poem divided into seventeen phonic units, the equivalent of syllables. The English version of a haiku is an unrhymed poem with seventeen syllables, arranged in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, in that order.¹

So the challenge for book spine haiku is to find three books with titles fitting those limits that work together to create a poem that makes some sense. The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teaching Haiku, in the Reference collection on the main floor of the Dick Smith Library, provides some tips on technique that might help if you are challenged to create a book spine haiku.

More examples of haiku in the library's collections are here:  https://zeus.tarleton.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&bquery=SU+haiku&cli0=FT1&clv0=Y&type=1&site=eds-live

¹Rholetter, Wylene. "Haiku." Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature, 2014. EBSCOhost, https://zeus.tarleton.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=87322448&site=eds-live.

Edgar Allan Poe

April is National Poetry Month, so in honor of this, I have chosen to share poems by Edgar Allan Poe, my favorite poet.  A search in the database, Literature Resource Center, yielded an online book, Mystery and Suspense Writers: The Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage (1998), from Scribner Writers Series, with a chapter by J. Gerald Kennedy, all about Poe.  

Poe was born on Jan. 19, 1809 to actor parents, David Poe and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe.  David Poe abandoned the family before Edgar was a year old and Elizabeth died before Edgar reached the age of two.  Poe was sent to a foster family who spoiled him, but never legally adopted him resulting in a precarious financial situation during college at the University of Virginia and also while at West Point.  Despite his rocky start, Poe wrote and published his poems and stories.

A dramatic reading of "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" may be found through the database, Films on Demand, under "'The Raven' and Other Poems".

Poem Excerpts:

“The Raven”

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.
 --
But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only.
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered 'Other friends have flown before-
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, 'Nevermore.'

---

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door,
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor,
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!

"My Annabel Lee"

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
--

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

---

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling - my darling- my life and my bride
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

"The Bells" - verse 1

Hear the sledges with the bells - SilverBells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a Crystalline delight
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.