Blank Verse

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE an English major to enjoy this book. The Brand-X Anthology of Poetry, collected parodies of poetry by Chaucer to E.B. White, is structured to parallel the famed Norton Anthology. Covering some 700 years of verse, the Brand-X Anthology, edited by William Zaranka, makes for both dignified sport and amusing diversions:

By the time you swear you're his,

Shivering and sighing,

And he vows his passion is

Infinite, undying--

Lady make note of this:

One of you is Iying.

Erudition oozes from every page. Mostly light in tone, the poems vary from the lewd and bawdy to the obscure and sanctimonious. Those with a wide knowledge of poetry will, no doubt, chuckle wryly at e.e. cummings send-ups:

the rider

is fat

as that( )

or wider( )

in torso

or course

the horse

is more so( )

For those without a serious enduring interest in verse, most of the poems, as weil as the historical outlines preceding each section, have the virtue of being amusing in their own right. "Once upon a midnight dreary, eerie, scary,/ I was wary, I was weary, full of worry, thinking of my lost Lenore..." needs no explanation, no point of reference.

Take-offs on Chaucer ("There was a Knight, a worthy for the chaffre./ He lovede gold, and was a Pornografer...) and Shakespeare (To draw, or not to draw,--that is the question:--/ Whether 'tis safer in the player to take/ The awful risk of skinning for a straight,/ Or, standing pat, to raise 'em all the limit/ And thus, by bluffing, get in...) abound.

Prince Hamlet thought Uncle a traitor

For having it off with his Mater;

Revenge Dad or not?

That's the gist of the plot,

And he did it--nine soliloquies later.

Although Zaranka deserves credit for his extensive research and meticulous structure, amusement derived from the anthology will be shortlived. The book is not a likely conversation piece; being able to make critical comparisons to the original will win you few friends. But the anthology does read well. When you buy this book, try to refrain from reading it out loud or chuckling to yourself. It may be harder than you think.