Nonsensical

Through the devising and resourcing of online lessons, I have managed to rediscover nonsense poetry again. As children we are exposed to the wonderful world of abstract thought and communication but then as we get older, rules come along and start beating us into conformity and such.

Nonsense poetry is incredible. It's like reading or listening to poetry in another language, where you might catch the odd word you know but everything else flies over your head. Some nonsense poetry is so good at obscuring the meaning that you'd get more sense discussing the Highlander film series with an a Martian called Alan.


The great thing about that is it forces you as a reader or listener to fill in the blanks (most good poetry does this anyway!) Nonsense relies on the interpretation of rhythm, rhyme, assonance, oddity and general silliness, to get a feel for what the writer was trying to convey.

I've written a few examples below and I'm putting the challenge out there to have a go yourselves. As always, share what you make and I'll post it to the Poetry Club wall. - Thom

Guires 1
Ghaster fan the simm,
zighs an oblescroot blode,
bunds fark as a frouse,
shanks lautie fanner noad.

Note: In this one I summoned Lewis Carrol. The original poem was comprised of four lines of hyperbole. I substituted the words for nonsense words that I felt sounded or conveyed the meaning of the original words.

Guires 2
She spakes to his farce smile,
'act naturally when we're alone together'

a deafening silence sits under the carpet,

'will you?' escaped her passive aggressive mouth,
'definitely maybe' he befogged, clearly confused by the way she was standing.

Note: In this one I used oxymorons to add nonsense, whilst playing with the verbs to make them seem awkward (the whole vibe of the conversation).

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