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JOSIE'S POEMS

Our Poetical Language -
Parody - eg Shadow Po
ems

By Josie Whitehead

You might also like to see:  Thank You Walter de la Mare

COPYRIGHT:   Make sure that you know the meaning of 'copyright'.  Once material is out of copyright, you can use it, but not before then.  PARODY:  an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.  You can, of course, write your very own material using parody, or simply follow the rhythm/metre and rhyming style etc with a poem of your own, but not copying the original author's words.  I call this 'shadowing' or a 'shadow poem' and this is what I've done below.  Do go and see the original poem first of all and then compare it with my own.  Why not write a poem called:  Mr Somebody?  Perhaps Mr Somebody is an invisible man, like Mickledy-Me, my own invisible character.

Other Writers:  Mr Nobody by Walter de la Mare

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IT'S POOR MR NOBODY AGAIN

By Josie Whitehead

It's Poor Mr Nobody Again

When I was but a little girl

    My mother read to me

A poem about a funny man

    Called Mr Nobody.

 

So did this man really exist

     And do such awful things?

Oh yes, he’s known by many folk,

     Both simple folk and kings.

 

Poor soul, he cannot answer back

    And always takes the blame.

He’s one who can’t defend himself.

     Now isn’t that a shame?

 

When things go missing, things go wrong;

     When mud’s left on the floor;

When something’s broken, or upset -  

      Oh yes, there is much more:

 

When milk is spilt, a chair is broken;

       Your school books disappear;

And when your shirt's so badly torn

      And stains on clothes appear . . .

 

Well, things much worse than all of these

    Can drive you to despair,

And you know who will get the blame -

     Well is that really fair?

 

 

Copyright on all my poems

Note:  Ask children whether the characters in my poems really exist.  Yes, as long as they are in their minds and they like them, they really do exist, as Mr Nobody existed in my mind all my life, of course.  Josie

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