Peculiar People - Funny Poems About Famous Folk
The 'famous people poetry' is further divided into funny poems about characters from the current era - 'figures of fun' - and those dragged from the depths of school history lessons - 'hysterical biographies'.
Hysterical Biographies
Kind Alfred, The Cake Burner
A funny poem about King Alfred, the English king from centuries ago who is remembered only for his failures in the kitchen.
Sir Walter Raleigh, Intrepid Explorer
Sir Walter Raleigh is famous as the person who discovered all the things ending in 'o' - igloo, Plato, tobacco, Tokyo - in an attempt to impress Queen Elizabeth I.
The Origin of World War 1
Sometimes a single, apparently innocuous event can have a dramatic effect on history.
Sir Isaac Newton
A funny little poem about Sir Isaac Newton and his explanation as to how he discovered the effects of gravity, a story he almost certainly made up to annoy his scientific rivals.
Figures of Fun
Dr Christian Barnard, Heart Transplant Pioneer
A short poem about Dr Christian Barnard, the South African surgeon who performed the first heart transplant operations.
Paul Adams, Cricketer
This poem was inspired by Paul Adams, the South African cricketer, who has an extraordinary disarticulated action which was famously described as like a 'frog in a blender'. Don't worry, it's about a frog, not cricket.
Tintin, Fictional Detective
A poem in the logical progressions series, which takes you from the word Tutu to Tintin in five easy leaps. In this case, the progression allows only changing one syllable of the initial word with each verse and the poem has to come close to making sense.
Batman
Most children, or perhaps more particularly boys, have superheroes - Batman, Spiderman, Catwoman... although it seems some superheroes are more accident prone than others.
Captain Hook
A puzzling poem about the fictional character Captain Hook who is central to the children's classic Peter Pan.
