The New Oxford book of light verse

Hibermia'The master, the swabber' / William Shakespeare

On Giles and Joan / Ben Jonson

'Oh that my lungs' / Anonymous

Hye Nonny Nonny Noe / Anonymous

from Satire upon the Licentious Age of Charles II / Samuel Butler

from Hudibras / Samuel Butler

The Character of Holland / Andrew Marvell

Three Children / Anonymous

A Description of Maidenhead

On Marriage / Thomas Flatman

Song / John Wilmot

The Disabled Debauchee / John Wilmot

Impromptu on Charles II / John Wilmot

from The True-Born Englishman / Daniel Defoe

A Pindaric on the Grunting of a Hog / Samuel Wesley

The Despairing Lover / William Walsh

Daphne / Jonathan Swift

from The Life and Character of Dean Swift / Jonathan Swift

from Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift / Jonathan Swift

A New Song of New Smiles / John Gay

Drinking Song / Anonymous

The Vicar of Bray / Anonymous

We're All Dry / Anonymous

from A Horrid and Barbarous Robbery / John Byrom

Epigram / John Byrom

Extempore Intended to Allay the Violence of Party-Spirit / John Byrom

Four Epigrams on the Naturalization Bill / John Byrom

Impromptu / Benjamin Franklin

The Power of Music / Thomas Lisle

Epigram, Ballad, Idyll / Samuel Johnson

The Sow came in / Anonymous

Trip upon Trenchers / Anonymous

Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat / Thomas Gray

On Prince Frederick / Anonymous

Rub-a-dub-dub / Anonymous

Tweedledum and Tweedledee / Anonymous

Baby, Baby / Anonymous

Ode to a Pig while his Nose was being Bored / Robert Elliott

To a Goose / Robert Southey

On Communists / Ebenezer Elliott

Three Sonnets / Leigh Hunt

Rich and Poor / Thomas Love Peacock

The Night before Larry was Stretched / Anonymous

In Peterborough Churchyard / Anonymous

from Beppo / Lord Byron(George Gordon Noel)

from Don Juan / Lord Byron(George Gordon Noel)

Fragment / Lord Byron(George Gordon Noel)

Wordsworth Unvisited / Hartley Coleridge

Love, You've been a Villain / James Planche

Ching a Ring / James Planche

An Austrian Army / Alaric A Watts

Faithless Sally Brown / Thomas Hood

Faithless Nelly Gray / Thomas Hood

To Minerva / Thomas Hood

Mr and Mrs Vite's Journey / Anonymous

A Maiden There Lived / Anonymous

Arrivals at a Watering-Place / W.M. Praed

Good Night to the Season / W.M. Praed

A Letter of Advice / W.M. Praed

Every-Day Characters:Portrait of a Lady / W.M. Praed

The Talented Man / W.M. Praed

Ode to the Human Heart / Laman Blanchard

Hendecasyllabics / Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Somebody / Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Popular / Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Aestivation / Oliver Wendell Holmes

Little Billee / W.M. Thackeray

The Sorrows of Werther / W.M. Thackeray

How Pleasant to Know / Edward Lear

Limericks / Edward Lear

Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister / Robert Browning

For A' That / Shirley Brooks

To Disraeli / Shirley Brooks

Our Photographs / Frederick Locker-Lampson

Hans Breitmann's Barty / C.G. Leland

Ballad by Hans Breitman / C.G. Leland

I saw a Fishpond / Anonymous

Companions, A Tale of a Grandfather / C.S. Calverley

'Forever' / C.S. Calverley

The Schoolmaster Abroad with his Son / C.S. Calverley

Lines on Hearing the Organ / C.S. Calverley

In the Gloaming / C.S. Calverley

from Dover to Munich / C.S. Calverley

How Doth the Little Crocodile / Lewis Carroll

You are old, Father William / Lewis Carroll

'Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!' / Lewis Carroll

'Tis the Voice of the Lobster / Lewis Carroll

Jabberwocky / Lewis Carroll

The Walrus and the Carpenter / Lewis Carroll

The White Knight's Song / Lewis Carroll

Hiawatha's Photographing / Lewis Carroll

Rural Simplicity / H.J. Byron

Tattle / Godfrey Turner

The Journal of Society / Godfrey Turner

The Darned Mounseer / W.S. Gilbert

The Englishman / W.S. Gilbert

The Modern Major-General / W.S. Gilbert

The Policeman's Lot / W.S. Gilbert

The Yarn of the 'Nancy Bell' / W.S. Gilbert

A Nightmare / W.S. Gilbert

Rhymes / Henry S. Leigh

Plain Lanquage From Truthful James / Bret Harte

Further Language from Truthful James / Bret Harte

Dora versus Rose / Austin Dobson

The Levelled Churchyard / Thomas Hardy

The Ruined Maid / Thomas Hardy

The Parterre / E.H. Palmer

Brahma / Andrew Lang

Triolet / Gerald Manley Hopkins

Not I / R.L. Stevenson

She was Poor but she was Honest / Anonymous

The Heathen Pass-ee / A.C. Hilton

After Horace / A.D. Godley

The Motor Bus/ A.D. Godley

Woman's Degrees/A.D. Godley

On Parisian Boulevard/ J.K. Stephen

On A Rhine Steamer/J. K. Stephen

Drinking Song/J. K. Stephen

Sincere Flattery /J. K. Stephen

To R.K./J. K. Stephen

A Sonet / J.K. Stephen

Fragment of a Greek Tragedy / A.E. Housman

Occasional Poem / A.E. Housman

The Elephant, or The Force of Habit / A.E. Housman

Infant Innocence / A.E. Housman

The Song of Mr. Toad/ Kenneth Grahame

Balliol Rhymes / H.C. Beeching, C.A. Spring-Rice, Anonymous

Gasbags / Anonymous

The Tale of Lord Lovell / Anonymous

The Ballad of William Bloat / Anonymous

Wishes of an Elderly Man / Walter Raleigh

A Birthday ode to Mr. Alfred Austin / Owen Seaman

Enland Expects / Owen Seaman

A plea for Trigamy / Owen Seaman

The Sitting Bard / Owen Seaman

The Lie / Rudy Kidling

Canopus / B.L. Taylor

On a General Election / Hilaire Belloc

Fatigue / Hilaire Belloc

Lord Finchley / Hilaire Belloc

The Yak / Hilaire Belloc

From A Moral Alphabet / Hilaire Belloc

Rebecca, who slammed doors for fun / Hilaire Belloc

An Ode / Anthony C. Deane

The Cult of the Celtic / Anthony C. Deane

A luncheon / Max Beerbohm

A Luncheon / Max Beerbohm

Iron / Walter De La Mare

The Bards / Walter De La Mare

Triolet / G.K. Chesterton

Variations on an Air / G.K. Chesterton

A Ballad of Abbreviations /G.K. Chesterton

Antichrist, or the Reunion Of Christendom / G.K. Chesterton

The Rolling English Road / G.K. Chesterton

Departmental / Robert Frost

Clerihews / C. Bentley

Reminiscence / Wallace Irwin

To the God of Love / E.V. Knox

To William (whom We Have Missed) / P.G. Wodehouse

The Gourmet's Love-Song / P.G. Wodehouse

A Vision of Truth / J.C. Squire

Wagner / Rupert Brooke

Sonnet Reversed / Rupert Brooke

Macavity: The Mystery Cat / T.S. Eliot

Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat / T.S. Eliot

cat Morgan Introduces Himself / T.S. Eliot

Two Poems (after A.E. Housman) / Hugh Kingsmill

Limericks / W.R. Inge, M.E Hare, R.A. Knox, Arthur Buller, Anonymous

A Word of Encouragement / J.R. Pope

Lines for a Worthy Person / A.P. Herbert

Sapphics / B. Wyndham Lewis

The Dancing Cabman / B. Morton.

The New Vicar of Bray / Colin Ellis

Epitaph on an Unfortunate Artist / Robert Graves

Wm. Brazier / Robert Graves

The Persian Version / Robert Graves

Wellcome, to the Caves of Arta! / Robert Graves

Wigs and Beards / Robert Graves

A Memory / L.A.G. Strong

Evolutionary Hymn / C.S. Lewis

Mad Dogs and Englishman / Noel Coward

There are Bad Times Just Around the Corner / Noel Coward

On Some South African Novelists / Roy Campbell

Limericks / Anonymous

Clerihew / Anonymous

After Emerson / Anonymous

Hibermia / Stuart Howard-Jones

Refections at Dawn / Phyllis McGinley

Caledonia / Anthony Powell

In Wesminster Abbey / John Betjeman

A Subaltern's Love-song / John Betjeman

Invasion Exercise on the Poultry Farm / John Betjeman

Pot Pourri From a Surrey Garden / John Betjeman

How to get on in Society / John Betjeman

Longfellow's Visit to Venice / John Betjeman

Executive / John Betjeman

Bagpipe Music / Louis Macneice

From Autumn journal / Louis Macneice

Uncle Henry / W.H. Auden

The Unknown Citizen / W.H. Auden

from Letter to Lord Byron / W.H. Auden

Under Which Lyre / W.H. Auden

On the Circuit / W.H. Auden

Doggerel by a Senior Citizen / W.H. Auden

Hiraeth in N.W.3 / Wynford Vaughan-Thomas

To His Not-So-Coy Mistress / Wynford Vaughan-Thomas

Farewell to New Zealand / Wynford Vaughan-Thomas

From Afternoons with Baedeker / Osbert Lancaster

Bacchanal / Peter De Vries

Christmas Family Reunion / Peter De Vries

'Go to the Ant' / Stanley J. Sharless

A Game of Consequences / Paul Dehn

Chard Whitlow / Henry Reed

Lament of an Idle Demon / R.P. Lister

The Revolutionaries / R.P. Lister

Miss Twye / Gavin Ewart

Limericks / Victor Gray

Betjeman / Charles Causley

A Grouchy Good Night to the Academic Year / Ted Pauker

A Trifle for Trafalgar Day / Ted Pauker

Garland for a Propagandis / Ted Paukert

Limeraiku / Ted Pauker

Ethics for Everyman / Roger Wooddis

Nothing Sacred / Roger Woodis

From An Ecclesiastical Chronicle / John Heath-Stubbs

The Poet of Bray / John Heath- Stubbs

A song of the GPO / Gerry Hammill

Bold Troubleshooters / Peter Veale

Abroad Thought / Edward Blishen

An Underdeveloped Country / D.J. Enright

Royalties / D.J. Enright

Buy One Now / D.J. Enright

Poetry Reading / Veron Scannell

The Albatross / Kingsley Amis

After Goliath / Kingsley Amis

From The Evans Country / Kingsley Amis

Fiction and the Reading Public / Philip Larkin

Toads / Philip Larkin

Toads Revisited / Philip Larkin

I Remember, I Remember / Philip Larkin

Self's the Man / Philip Larkin

A Study of Reading Habits / Philip Larkin

Annus Mirabilis / Philip Larkin

The Dover Bitch / Anthony Hecht

Breakfast with Gerard Manley Hopkins / Anthony Brode

Ode on a Grecian Urn Summarized / Desmond Skirrow

Tom Wedgwood Tells / Brian W. Aldiss

Arizona Nature Myth / James Michie

A word in Edgeways / Charles Tomlinson

Elegy on Thomas Hood / Martin Fagg

A Consumer's Report / Peter Porter

The Political Orlando / George Macbeth

The Orando Commercial / George Macbeth

The Five-Minute Orlando Macbeth / George Macbeth

Place-Names of China / Alan Bennett

Bluse / John Fuller

Satie, at the End of Term / Simon Curtis.