Poems that invoke amusement often have a playful rhythm and witty language. They portray lighthearted stories or observations, interspersed with clever rhymes and tongue-in-cheek humor.
They make the reader smile or chuckle and provoking delight in their unique spin on common experiences. These poems reflect the joyous absurdities of life, embodying an infectious spirit of mirth and joy.
‘Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog’ is a humorous, playful, and extremely concise poem that presents the dog’s feelings of superiority.
Intended to be humorous, the poem's principle achievement is how amusing it is, given the paucity of words it contains. In just two lines, Pope achieved a sense of absurdity many would struggle to create in a dozen or more.
‘Song of the Open Road’ by Ogden Nash is a short but humorous poem that expresses an annoyance and anxiety over the prevalence of billboards over trees.
A common emotion in many of Nash's poems, this one also inspires a certain amusement. Although the speaker appears earnest in their love of trees, their tone and use of hyperbole also reveal their words to be slightly tongue-in-cheek. After all, it would take an astonishing number of billboards to truly keep them from ever seeing another tree again.
‘The Minuet’ by Mary Mapes Dodge alludes to the many changes that the passage of time presents. This is specially related to the way that one speaker’s grandmother has changed.
The image of their grandmother dancing the minuet deeply amuses the speaker. It stands in stark contrast with how they commonly imagine their grandmother acting and is at the heart of the poem's upbeat tone.
‘A Party Of Lovers’ observes and critiques a group of people too self-absorbed to open themselves up to passion and human interaction.
Amusement is central to 'A Party of Lovers,' as Keats’s speaker offers a dry, witty critique of lifeless “lovers.” The absurdity of the gathering, with its neglected tea and resigned fly rescue, adds to the humor, drawing attention to the irony in how easily love’s vibrancy can dissolve in self-obsession.
Pensive they sit, and roll their languid eyes,
Nibble their toast, and cool their tea with sighs,
The ‘Ars Poetica’ is a 476-line didactic epistolary poem by the Roman poet Horace. This humorous, engaging verse teaches the wannabe poet how to write good stories and develop meaningful art.
Horace's exaggerated similes, imagery, puns, and ironic statements are a great example of how a dry topic can become amusing - if the author is good at his job. While this poem may be over 2,000 years old, it is fresh and full of amusement for any listener.
Christina Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market,’ narrates the fantastical tale of Laura and Lizzie, delving into sin, redemption, and sisterhood.
This poem is an intriguing long narrative featuring lyrical language, intricate imagery, fantastical elements, strange characters like Goblins, mysterious fruits, etc., that evoke amusement. The playful language, rhyme, and rhythm add lightheartedness and enhance the charm of extraordinary, almost magical fruits. It is amusing and delightful to think of the goblins that have 'a cat's face,' crawl 'like a snail,' or tramp 'at a rat's pace' etc., doing antics like rapidly flying, running, leaping, puffing, chuckling, clucking, or gobbling. Alternatively, discovering darker themes in this fairytale-like children's poetry can amuse adult readers.
‘The Old Vicarage, Grantchester’ is a light poem about a homesick traveler sentimentally remembering his former home in the English town of Grantchester. The poem takes a gently satirical tone to its subject matter.
While there are many poems that are wholly serious, 'The Old Vicarage, Grantchester' is just about the opposite. There are no hard, difficult lessons or truly unpleasant ideas. This is a light poem that is gently satirical of its subject matter. The result is a pleasant, amusing poem to read. The amusing quality of the poem is highlighted by several satirical lines that are very memorable for the funny way they subvert the surface-level meaning of the speaker's message.
‘Stars’ by Sara Teasdale presents nature’s majesty through the sublime beauty and timelessness of stars providing spiritual truth.
The speaker is amused by the beauty and mysticism of myriads of stars glowing in white and red. The power of nature also inspires awe as the speaker wonders how these stars are shining for eons using a creative metaphor of stars' 'Hearts of fire' beating for eons. The speaker also emphasizes the enchantment of stars as they are still, and yet they seem moving. Thus, the poem's imagery, metaphor, and creative language make the speaker's musings amusing for the readers. Moreover, the experience of stargazing is usually considered mesmerizing.
‘The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants’ by Emily Dickinson personifies the mushroom and nature while depicting its mysterious and fleeting life.
The speaker is amused at the mysterious and elusive existence of the mushroom. She seems to have observed it intricately and presents it as nature's amusing phenomena, emphasizing the mushroom's playful, mischievous, and unpredictable behavior. The whimsical portrayal of the personified mushroom as a clever trickster or a rebel gives an intriguing new perspective to ordinary fungi, making readers admire and wonder at the unpredictable and extraordinary phenomena of nature that seem magical or as if there is a world and interactions beyond human perceptions.
‘Macavity: The Mystery Cat’ is a light verse presenting the amusing crimes of the superhuman cat – Macavity.
'Macavity: The Mystery Cat,' aimed at a young audience, presents a notorious criminal. The portrayal of a cat as an infamous and ingenious mysterious criminal evokes readers' amusement and wonder as the cunning feline fools everyone and escapes every time after committing criminal violations. The extraordinary abilities of Macavity, such as levitation, accentuate the readers' amusement.
Macavity’s a Mystery Cat: he’s called the Hidden Paw—
For he’s the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He’s the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad’s despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime—Macavity’s not there!
Dickinson’s ‘A narrow Fellow in the Grass’ captures snakes’ unsettling presence, reflecting fear and human vulnerability amid nature.
The playful and almost whimsical description of the 'A narrow Fellow in the Grass' in the beginning can evoke amusement in readers, drawing them into the scene with a lightheartedness. Personification, describing the snake as if it were a friendly acquaintance, adds to the poem's charm, inviting readers to share in the speaker's amused perspective as they navigate the encounter with the 'narrow Fellow' who rides in the grass.
Tennyson’s ‘The Lady of Shalott’ narrates the tale of the cursed Lady entrapped in a tower on the island of Shalott, who meets a tragic end.
The poem evokes a sense of amusement through its mythological and fairy tale narrative. The poem's fantastical elements, such as the Lady's curse and the magical atmosphere surrounding her tower, create a whimsical and enchanting mood. Additionally, descriptions of the Lady's island transport readers to the mystical realm of Shalott, creating an aura of the supernatural. This blend of myth, fantasy, and evocative imagery taking readers through the Lady's enchanted world evokes amusement.
‘From a Railway Carriage’ by Robert Louis Stevenson wakes up rather sudden and instantaneous images of the rustic countryside; it overcomes the reader with impressions of the brevity of life and its rich variety.
Amusement is examined by focusing on the playful and observant framework of the subject of study. Stevenson’s concept of children at play or the scenes of day-to-day life observed from the train window gives the impression of a fun and joyful life. The episodes portrayed in the poem may cause laughter to those who read it and help them react to what they see by appreciating the picture of rural life from the instances of random snapshots of it.
Within ‘Sick’ Shel Silverstein crafts a humorous story of one child’s attempts to stay home from school. The poem explores the themes of deceit, obligations, and joy.
This poem creates humor through the overemphasis on Peggy’s sicknesses in the poem. Her list of excuses is getting more and more ridiculous, for instance, she says that her tongue fills up her mouth and her brain is shrinking and this makes the story quite hilarious. This over-exaggeration of the symptoms is rather comical and amusing to the readers and hence they are more likely to respond with humor.
Stevenson’s ‘The Spirit is too Blunt an Instrument’ marvels at the precise design of a baby’s body, exploring the mind and body dualism.
The speaker is captivated and amused by the meticulous structure and the tiny nuances of a newborn's human body. For instance, the speaker marvels at the intricately crafted minute details of the baby's body, such as the 'distinct eyelashes and sharp crescent / fingernails, the shell-like complexity / of the ear, with its firm involutions / concentric in miniature to minute / ossicles.' The poem offers a new lens through which to observe the human body, making readers feel amused by the intricate and precise design and mechanism of the human body.
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