Light poetry
Light poetry, or light verse, is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Poems considered "light" are usually brief, and can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play, including puns, adventurous rhyme and heavy alliteration. Typically, light verse in English is formal verse, although a few free verse poets, such as Billy Collins, have excelled at light verse outside the formal verse tradition.
While light poetry is sometimes condemned as doggerel, or thought of as poetry composed casually, humor often makes a serious point in a subtle or subversive way. Many of the most renowned "serious" poets, such as Horace, Swift, Pope and Auden, have also excelled at light verse.
Notable poets
English
J. A. Lindon
Hilaire Belloc
John Betjeman
Lord Byron
C. S. Calverley
Lewis Carroll
Charles E. Carryl
Brian P. Cleary
William Rossa Cole
Wendy Cope
Alma Denny
Henry Austin Dobson
T. S. Eliot
Willard R. Espy
Gavin Ewart
Charles Ghigna
W. S. Gilbert
Arthur Guiterman
Thomas Hood