Poem of the Week: ‘Some More Light Verse’ by Wendy Cope
5 August 2024
Our Poem of the Week is ‘Some More Light Verse’ by Wendy Cope, which appears in The Orange and other poems and was originally published in Serious Concerns.
Some More Light Verse
You have to try. You see a shrink.
You learn a lot. You read. You think.
You struggle to improve your looks.
You meet some men. You write some books.
You eat good food. You give up junk.
You do not smoke. You don’t get drunk.
You take up yoga, walk and swim.
And nothing works. The outlook’s grim.
You don’t know what to do. You cry.
You’re running out of things to try.
You blow your nose. You see the shrink.
You walk. You give up food and drink.
You fall in love. You make a plan.
You struggle to improve your man.
And nothing works. The outlook’s grim.
You go to yoga, cry and swim.
You eat and drink. You give up looks.
You struggle to improve your books.
You cannot see the point. You sigh.
You do not smoke. You have to try.
Copyright © Wendy Cope 1992. Used by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd. All rights reserved.
‘Some More Light Verse’ Wendy Cope appears in The Orange and other poems and was originally published in Serious Concerns.
The Orange provides the perfect introduction to Wendy Cope, one of Britain’s wittiest, best-selling and best-loved poets.
Wendy Cope was born in Erith, Kent. After university she worked for fifteen years as a primary-school teacher in London. Her first collection of poems, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, was published in 1986 and her most recent, Anecdotal Evidence, in 2018. In 1987 she received a Cholmondeley Award for poetry and in 1995 the American Academy of Arts and Letters Michael Braude Award. Two Cures for Love: Selected Poems 1979-2006 was published in 2008.
