A Parody Anthology — A Reader’s Guide

Meter and Diction as Targets

The parodies in this collection often zero in on a poet's most recognizable metrical patterns and verbal tics. For instance, the anonymous 'Ye Clerke of ye Wethere' mimics Chaucer's Middle English prosody and vocabulary, while Owen Seaman's 'Lines Written by Request' exaggerates the ornate, self-conscious diction of late-Victorian verse. In 'The Golfer's Rubaiyat,' H. W. Boynton substitutes golfing terminology for the original Persian imagery of the Rubaiyat stanza, preserving the quatrain form and rhyme scheme. These imitations reveal how closely parody can adhere to the original's formal structure while swapping out content for comic effect.

The Parodist's Voice and the Original Author

Several pieces in the anthology blur the line between homage and critique by adopting the original author's voice so thoroughly that the parody becomes a kind of literary ventriloquism. Charles S. Calverley's untitled Browning parody—beginning 'You see the trick on't though, and can yourself / Continue the discourse ad libitum'—captures Browning's characteristic syntactical inversions, colloquial interjections, and philosophical asides. Similarly, Lewis Carroll's 'The Voice of the Lobster' mimics the moralizing tone of Isaac Watts's didactic verse while substituting absurd animal imagery. These parodies do not simply mock; they demonstrate an intimate understanding of the original poet's compositional habits.

Pacing and Structural Play

Many parodies in the anthology manipulate pacing to heighten the comic effect. 'A Staccato to O Le Lupe' by Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey uses short, clipped lines and abrupt shifts in tone to parody the breathless enthusiasm of Gelett Burgess's 'The Purple Cow' and the Decadent movement. In contrast, 'The Baby's Omar' by Carolyn Wells slows the Rubaiyat's meditative quatrains to a nursery-rhyme tempo, replacing wine and fate with baby talk and lullabies. The anthology also includes parodies that accelerate or decelerate the original's rhythm, such as 'The Modern Rubaiyat' by Kate Masterson, which compresses the Rubaiyat's existential themes into a single stanza of social commentary.

Readers approaching A Parody Anthology may find it useful to read a few of the original poems before turning to their parodies, as the humor often depends on recognizing the source. The anthology rewards attention to small details—a substituted word, a shifted stress, a borrowed rhyme—that reveal the parodist's craft. Wells's collection remains a valuable record of how late-Victorian and Edwardian writers engaged with their literary predecessors through imitation and inversion.

Wells’s anthology taught me how parody loves a poet enough to mimic their very heartbeat. That same fond mischief lingers in Imperfectly Proper — A Reader’s Guide, where playful irreverence never dims genuine affection for the craft. It feels like two old friends winking across a reading room, each knowing the other's secret.