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Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (Faber Pocket Poetry)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Wendy Cope is very clever. She's good at taking much of what poetry holds dear and pricking its balloon. Her humour is an acquired taste and one short poem from "Strugnell's Haiku" sets the tone of this volume, first published in 1986, to great popular acclaim. "The leaves have fallen / And the snow has fallen and / Soon my hair also ..." a perfect haiku in form and perfectly ridiculous. This is her raison d'etre, to highlight the absurd in love, sex, courtship and in the sometimes stuffy, self-righteous literary poetry world. The title poem "Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis" was inspired by a dream apparently and the short four-line verse tells us no more. "Some kind of record seemed vital. / I knew it wouldn't be much of a poem / But I love the title." She tantalises but always stops short of deeper meaning. She mocks the rather pompous task of the Poet Laureate with her "All Purpose Poem for State Occasions": "The nation rejoices or mourns / As this happy or sombre day dawns." She slips into the bizarre persona of a policeman assigned to patrol the unconscious of Ted Hughes and parodies early reading books in an a-b a-b rhyme about an adulterous milkman: "Go Peter! Go Jane! Come milkman, come!" Her nursery rhymes in the style of Wordsworth ("Baa Baa Black Sheep") and T.S. Eliot ("Hickory Dickory Dock") are hilarious. It comes as quite a shock to come upon several serious poems, such as "On Finding an Old Photograph" in which she muses on her father before her birth and "all his sadness / and the things I didn't give him." The narrator of "Tich Miller" is bullied in school. "They usually chose me, the lesser dud / and she lolloped, unselected / to the back of the other team." There is little jauntiness in "At 3 a.m." in which the narrator imagines someone sleeping somewhere else with a woman next to him, crying quietly.
Most of Cope's poems confirm popular notions of what poetry should be--rhyming, accessible and direct. In "Rondeau Redouble", she's back laughing as though the hurt never happened at all. "There are so many kinds of awful men /One can't avoid them all. She often said / She'd never make the same mistake again: She always made a new mistake instead." --Cherry Smyth --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
One of six wonderful collections published in celebration of Faber's rich poetry heritage.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis' is a joy to read. Wendy Cope writes witty and refreshing poems which are ideal to read aloud and share with others - they had my whole family in stitches. 'From June to December' is a funny and touching account of the different emotions which are experienced at the start of a relationship, and at its termination. Wendy Cope has a great talent for describing human emotions, particularly love, in a way that we can all identify with. However, her talent is not restricted to humorous poetry, and 'Tich Miller' effectively conveys what it is like to be the outcast who is picked last for teams during school sports, and although the narrator is able to get one over her athletic counterparts, "sneering at hockey players who couldn't spell", tragically Tich Miller dies before she can find any kind of niche for herself. One of the most enjoyable, touching poetry collections I have ever read.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an amusing collection if you are fond of poetry and have some knowledge of the styles and poets that have inspired the contents. It would be a good stocking filler for a literary friend.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Wendy Cope always struck me as a woman fighting to keep her naive romantic and lyrical instincts about the scepticism that dogs our everyday disappointments with life. Her story of girlish summer romance turning to another weary disappointment by autumn does not prevent her wanting to try again.
That she chooses to do so with wickedly humour by parodying poetic forms and poets themselves (play the man, not the ball!) adds further emphasis to the moments of revelation unveiled with materful economy.
Mastery of technique is required to deliver first-rate parody, so it is to Cope's eternal credit that her skill is fulfilled with such a light touch. Cope's verse is charming but sly and frequently underestimated.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Delightful collection of poems
This was a wonderful little collection of poems from a delightful poet. I loved the literary parodies and the way she pokes fun at the things people take too seriously. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Katie Stevens
a laugh a minute
Thank heavens for Copes view of life and the tongue in cheek nature of these amusing poems. They certainly bring a bit of humour into the male/female debate and are often outright... Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2009 by inch worm
Winter Warmers
If you're a fan of Wendy Cope's lighthearted and bathos-filled poetry then you'll definitely want to own this. Read more
Published on 1 May 2009 by Captain Pugwash
If only she would write more!
Witty and great fun, there's no one else quite like Wendy Cope in English poetry.
Published on 16 Oct 2008 by Book Nut
expected better
we don't get to see as much of wendy cope in the u.s. as i had hoped, so i ordered a couple of her books from amazon uk. Read more
Published on 29 Dec 2001 by adead_poet@hotmail.com
A Modern Satirical Classic: An Absolute Must-Read
This has been a firm favourite of mine ever since my father gasped in horror when I said I'd never read it & immediately went out to buy me a copy. Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2000
WENDY COPE - More Bridget Jones than Bridget Jones
Wendy Cope - what a woman. The first time I read one of her poems I thought she had got into my head and read my thoughts - witty, funny, romantic, ironic. Does she hate men? Read more
Published on 27 Nov 1999
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