Humour Poem

 Its a poem about humor; but not humor poetry I must stress; 

Its historically factual, light on humor but poetic I guess! 

Oh yes, at first humor poetry I intended this to be; 

A genre I assumed easy to write for me! 

Right up my street, so of course I would enter!

How hard can it be to write a poem with banter?

Well, not as easy as it would seem…

My first dilemma was what does humor mean?

So I started to search for what humor should be;

And stumbled at the first hurdle as to why Britain and America spell it differently!!

Not to be beaten by a little letter like 'u' in British humour,

I pressed on in the surety its no problem as the definition would not differ.

Humor or humour, however spelt, is both noun and verb, now that's ironic;

As both are defined as a quality of being amused or comic!

A humor/humour poem is a literacy tool,

Designed to make you laugh with witty, silly nonsensical!

On further review, I learned it does not have to make you laugh,

But it is more fun if you do!

Humor/humour can be infectious, hilarious and jocalarius. A power to uplift the mood;

Or it can be black, dry, grim, morbid, sardonic and even rude.

Being me, I am not one who makes it easy on myself!

Yes! A glutton for punishment so into humor history I did delve!

Did you know in Britain that by the late 16th century humour had set in?

To lead the mood senses by indulging a persons whim!

Whereas America was late to get on the humor train,

This was down to the civil war in the main;

But when that ended in 1783, humor came in the form of a character known as 'The Yankee'.

The first humorous fictional theme for the whole nation to find fun;

So funny that until the late 19th century, there was not another one.

It would seem humor (and poetry) has travelled for generations very well;

For centuries and all over the world, regardless of changes to the way we spell.

Not satisfied with my findings on my humor/humour quest;

Surely to consult 'Wikipedia' would allow me to lay it to rest!

It had to be my final stop to clarify what is humor poetry.

Yay It went further and even defined British and American Humor separately!

For British humour the big 'w' had to say

"Often sarcastic, self deprecating and delivered in a dead pan way".

For American humor the wise 'w' said

"A term that ties together collectively humor in USA by its common threads".

A further example given in this explanation:

American humor is often defined by comparison to humor of other nations (i.e. British or Canadian).

As for British humour, the big 'w's definition also infers

"May be used to bury emotions in a way that seems insensitive to other cultures".

Okay, maybe this was not the humor poem you had in mind?

For certain, not what you expected to find?

But did it serve the purpose and break monotony boredom?

Bring about relaxation and relieve the tedium?

Humor/humour! 

To comply with the wishes of someone to keep them content

With laughter and joy 

For a time. 

Poetry;

An expression of feelings and intensity through a style of word rhyme! 

In this poem, which is not humor poetry as one would define...

There is still humor and poetry.. but with a twist of education and a style of writing that's mine 

Tammy L. Donoghue