The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #157909   Message #3730282
Posted By: GUEST,henryp
14-Aug-15 - 07:41 AM
Thread Name: So, what IS a parody?
Subject: RE: So, what IS a parody?
King James' Bible 1611 Proverbs 24 30-34
I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;
And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction.
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
So shall your poverty come as one that travels; and your lack as an armed man.

Set to verse as The Sluggard by Isaac Watts 1715
'Tis the voice of the Sluggard; I heard him complain,
'You have wak'd me too soon! I must slumber again!'
As the door on its hinges, so he on his bed
Turns his sides and his shoulders and his heavy head.

'A little more sleep, and a little more slumber;'
Thus he wastes half his days, and his hours without number,
And when he gets up, he sits folding his hands,
Or walks about sauntering, or trifling he stands.

A political parody; a Chartist poem from The Northern Star 1841
'Tis the voice of the people I hear it on high,
It peals o'er the mountains - it soars to the sky;
Through wide fields of heather, it wings its swift flight;
Like thunders of heaven arrayed in their might.

A comic parody; from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 1865
'Tis the voice of the Lobster: I heard him declare
"You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.