dumbfoundry

Bad poetry was invented in 1810, in Dovershire, England, by Reginald Sporson, a curate and minor rugby coach. The first bad poem was "The Dawn Upon the Lily," which consisted of two short stanzas, the second far worse than the first. Sporson went on to write for 35 years, and birthed the first wave of bad poetry. By 1847, there were 119 bad poets writing in Great Britain. Bad poetry quickly emigrated to America, France, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Norway, Nigeria, Turkey, Canada, Lebanon, Bolivia, Ghana and Mexico, in that order. The last place bad poetry reached was China (in 1894).

Bad poetry has a simple genesis: people who are not poets write poems. Before 1810, it never occurred to anyone who wasn't a poet to write a poem. People believed in the "Muse", a mysterious force that overtook the conscious mind, and forced it to write poetry. Reginald Sporson denied the existence of the Muse, and his theory has eventually taken hold: now no one (outside of Western Pakistan) believes in the Muse. Everyone thinks they can be a poet. That's why there is more bad poetry than ever before.

So join with us! Fuck the Muse! Every man a poetess! Every woman a poet!*

* Notice the non-sexist language.

This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy on Saturday, November 13, 2004 at 2:06 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.