erastes

Three poems of differing delightedness and three of my very favourites.  I love a lot of the more familiar, serious and pretentious such as "Rage rage against the dying of the light.." and stuff like that but I wanted to share with you three that you may not have heard/read before, and which never fail to make me smile.

1. Back Answers by Robb Wilton

More correctly known as a monologue, which was a popular medium in Victorian Times and the age of the Music Hall and Variety. This site here is full of them and they bring my childhood back to me almost painfully.  Robb Wilton was a northerner with a wicked sense of humour. If you can get hold of him actually reciting this - there are recordings still available, then DO.  The words don't do justice to theirselves and need to read aloud with his impeccable sense of timing and wonderful accent.
( Back Answers by Robb Wilton )

2. Mary Pugh by Spike Milligan

I've loved this one since birth, it seems to me. I was in my cot while my parents laughed at the Goons, and my mother bought me "Silly Verse for Kids" as soon as it came out and read it to me at night. I was also a complete fan of Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Tales (which are well worth a giggle too, if you haven't read them)

( Mary Pugh )

3. The Lion and Albert by Marriot Edgar

This last is another comic monologue (I had the sort of upbringing where we'd put on shows all the time, very theatrical and Little Women) called "The Lion and Albert" by Marriot Edgar.  Again it needs a great northern accent to do it justice.  It has a lot of dark humour, which I adore.

( The Lion and Albert )

Other great favourites
"When We were Very Young" and "Now We are Six" by A A Milne
The Listeners by De La Mare
Funeral Blues by Auden