Nonsense verse is a form of poetry, normally composed for humorous effect, which is intentionally and overtly paradoxical, silly, witty, whimsical or just plain strange. It has a long tradition, particularly in English, being congenial to the absurdist streak in British humor. Some Dadaist writings could also be considered as being nonsense verse. Nonsense as a literary art is not written only in verse. The wider genre, which includes many kinds of poetry and prose, is called literary nonsense.
Nonsense verse in this sense should be distinguished from humorous verse or from verse that is nonsensical but intended as parody of modernist verse, such as the poems by the fictitious Ern Malley. In the latter case, the nonsense is an in-joke or hoax, and there is an assumption that it would be taken as meaningful, and even deep, by some readers (whose taste is thus ridiculed).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonsense_verse
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18 lines, 3 comments, on Jan 16 8:51 PM
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