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Holy Tango of Literature
Holy Tango of Literature is a unique and captivating collection mimicking the great writers of literary history. This devilishly witty book has a twist: Each writer's name is rearranged as a title, creating the subject for a parody rendered in the author's style.
128 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 20, 2012
What if one wrote a poem inspired by an anagram of a famous poet's name, in the style of that poet?
This is another book I'm not allowed to read in bed: the uncontrollable laughter wakes up the other occupants. I can't decide which of the following I should quote:
If you like these, you'll want to own this book.
In most literary anthologies, the hardest decisions involve deciding who to leave out. In our case, it was easy. No decent anagrams? To hell with them.
This is another book I'm not allowed to read in bed: the uncontrollable laughter wakes up the other occupants. I can't decide which of the following I should quote:
i Will alarm islamiC oWls
William Carlos Williams
I will be alarming
the Islamic owls
that are in
the barn
and which
you warned me
are very jittery
and susceptible to loud noises
Forgive me
they see so well in the dark
so feathery
and so dedicated to Allah
errol fLynn's noT deAd
Alfred Lord Tennyson
He grabs the rope with withered hands,
Swings through the air and softly lands;
Girt with a silver sword he stands.
That rotting man is Errol Flynn;
He bares a grey and toothless grin,
And like a zombie eats my skin.
If you like these, you'll want to own this book.
August 21, 2007
Francis Heaney is a comic genius. This slim volume mainly contains poems written according to the conceit: "What if poets wrote poems whose names were anagrams of the poet's own name?". Accordingly it contains such gems as "Toilets", by T.S. Eliot, "Skinny Domicile" by Emily Dickinson, "Likable Wilma" by William Blake, and - my personal favorite - "Hen Gonads" by Ogden Nash.
If you don't want to buy the book, pretty much the entire content is also available online, e.g. at
http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/0006...
Warning: may cause violent, uncontrollable, wine-through-your-nose-snorting laughter.
A genius, I tell you!
If you don't want to buy the book, pretty much the entire content is also available online, e.g. at
http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/0006...
Warning: may cause violent, uncontrollable, wine-through-your-nose-snorting laughter.
A genius, I tell you!
January 13, 2009
Absolutely awesome. Also can be found online for free. I read it online and then promptly purchased a hard copy as a gift. Should you read it, I dare guess you would be inspired to do the same.
November 18, 2014
For the record, I, a uselessly poor anagrammer, did know T.S. Eliot became Toilets.
It's clever. An amusing gift for an English major, I expect.
It's clever. An amusing gift for an English major, I expect.
November 16, 2019
A work of genius! T.S. Eliot anagrams to “Toilets”. Francis Heaney therefore uses that theme to parody Eliot’s best-known poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, as the opening poem of the book:
Let us go then, to the john,
Where the toilet seat waits to be sat upon
Like a lover’s lap perched upon ceramic;
Let us go, through doors that do not always lock,
Which means you ought to knock
Lest opening one reveal a soul within
Who’ll shout, “Stay out! Did you not see my shin,
Framed within the gap twixt floor and stall?”
No, I did not see that at all.
That is not what I saw, at all.
To the stall the people come to go,
Reading an obscene graffito.
We have lingered in the chamber labeled “MEN”
Till attendants proffer aftershave and mints
As we lather up our hands with soap, and rinse.
And so it goes, throughout the Holy Tango of Literature: anagram the poet's name, use that as the theme for parodying their best known poem. Here are some of the openings:
e. e. cummings: “nice smug me”
nice smug me lived in a pretty hip town
(with up so noses snobs looking down)
saks moomba vong prada
i wore my mesclun i ate my uggs
William Shakespeare: “Is a sperm like a whale?”
Shall I compare thee to a sperm whale, sperm?
Thou art more tiny and more resolute:
Gerard Manley Hopkins: “Kong ran my dealership”
I hired last summer someone simian, King
Kong of Indies islands, fifty-foot-fierce Gorilla, out of hiding
Chaucer, Dorothy Parker, Frost, Whitman, Gwendolyn Brooks… it is an extensive collection, including parodies of plays by Wilde, Woody Allen, Beckett, Pinter and so on. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who anagrams to “Multicolored Argyle Sea”, is a particular delight. Beginning
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he taketh lots of drugs,
it surreptitiously develops a second level of parody of a completely different drug-related poem. I’ll let you discover it for yourself.
And one of my favorites is William Blake, “Likable Wilma”:
Wilma, Wilma, in thy blouse,
Red-haired prehistoric spouse,
What immortal animator
Was thy slender waist’s creator?
When the Rubble clan moved in,
Was Betty jealous of thy skin,
Thy noble nose, thy dimpled knee?
Did he who penciled Fred draw thee?
Wilma, Wilma, burning bright, ye
Cartoon goddess Aphrodite,
Was it Hanna or Barbera
Made thee hot as some caldera?
The book is out of print, and its publisher out of business, but even if you can’t find a used copy, it is still available online for free, although without the illustrations. It is the most satisfying collection of parodies I have ever read.
Let us go then, to the john,
Where the toilet seat waits to be sat upon
Like a lover’s lap perched upon ceramic;
Let us go, through doors that do not always lock,
Which means you ought to knock
Lest opening one reveal a soul within
Who’ll shout, “Stay out! Did you not see my shin,
Framed within the gap twixt floor and stall?”
No, I did not see that at all.
That is not what I saw, at all.
To the stall the people come to go,
Reading an obscene graffito.
We have lingered in the chamber labeled “MEN”
Till attendants proffer aftershave and mints
As we lather up our hands with soap, and rinse.
And so it goes, throughout the Holy Tango of Literature: anagram the poet's name, use that as the theme for parodying their best known poem. Here are some of the openings:
e. e. cummings: “nice smug me”
nice smug me lived in a pretty hip town
(with up so noses snobs looking down)
saks moomba vong prada
i wore my mesclun i ate my uggs
William Shakespeare: “Is a sperm like a whale?”
Shall I compare thee to a sperm whale, sperm?
Thou art more tiny and more resolute:
Gerard Manley Hopkins: “Kong ran my dealership”
I hired last summer someone simian, King
Kong of Indies islands, fifty-foot-fierce Gorilla, out of hiding
Chaucer, Dorothy Parker, Frost, Whitman, Gwendolyn Brooks… it is an extensive collection, including parodies of plays by Wilde, Woody Allen, Beckett, Pinter and so on. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who anagrams to “Multicolored Argyle Sea”, is a particular delight. Beginning
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he taketh lots of drugs,
it surreptitiously develops a second level of parody of a completely different drug-related poem. I’ll let you discover it for yourself.
And one of my favorites is William Blake, “Likable Wilma”:
Wilma, Wilma, in thy blouse,
Red-haired prehistoric spouse,
What immortal animator
Was thy slender waist’s creator?
When the Rubble clan moved in,
Was Betty jealous of thy skin,
Thy noble nose, thy dimpled knee?
Did he who penciled Fred draw thee?
Wilma, Wilma, burning bright, ye
Cartoon goddess Aphrodite,
Was it Hanna or Barbera
Made thee hot as some caldera?
The book is out of print, and its publisher out of business, but even if you can’t find a used copy, it is still available online for free, although without the illustrations. It is the most satisfying collection of parodies I have ever read.
September 20, 2013
Very clever and very funny, with a superb ear for diction and tone, Holy Tango captures the voices of a wide variety of poets and playwrights to gloriously silly effect. The juxtapositions of style and subject matter are often amusing in and of themselves, but Heaney never rests on that alone, creating one witty verse after another, sometimes indulging in adolescent vulgarity but always with such sparklingly playful repartee as to elevate the bawdiest of rhymes to brilliance.
March 4, 2008
Love it!
He took The Great Authors(tm) and made anagrams of their names, which he then used as titles and inspiration for a silly piece written in the original author's style. Got that?
For example, my favorite of course was the Robert Frost parody poem "Brr, Footrest!" which was basically "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening," except about the opening credits of the Dick Van Dyke Show.
He took The Great Authors(tm) and made anagrams of their names, which he then used as titles and inspiration for a silly piece written in the original author's style. Got that?
For example, my favorite of course was the Robert Frost parody poem "Brr, Footrest!" which was basically "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening," except about the opening credits of the Dick Van Dyke Show.
May 28, 2015
A collection of poetry and skits based on anagrams of various poets' and playwrights' names. Some more inspired than others, most of them completely on-the-mark in terms of getting the poet's or playwright's voice down. The best is "I will alarm Islamic owls," (William Carlos Williams) with "An E-Mail" (A A Milne) as a close second.
April 8, 2015
Very impressive to have mimicked the style & tone of so many different poets & playwrights in such a creative way. I found that I am not captivated by Dylan Thomas no matter who is writing it, and Woody Allen is melodramatic and bizarre no matter what. A brilliant idea to showcase one person's range in writing.
August 16, 2008
A collection of parodies of poems and plays (scenes)by authors whose names can be made into anagrams. Most are a real hoot. A few may not be suitable for prudes and children: the magic word is there. Heaney assumes that his readers actually know something.
June 27, 2012
A must-read for any lover of literature. Heaney tackles everything from T.S. Eliot to A.A. Milne with hilarious results. He stays true to each author's form while writing new laugh-out-loud creations.
June 14, 2014
This is pretty much the most fantastic thing I have ever read. I'm impressed at the author's ability to mimic so many authors' styles while keeping almost all of the works funny. I kind of wish he would do a second book of these, because my clearest thought by the end was that I just needed more.
May 28, 2007
A slim, witty, erudite read, so good I wanted to date it.
July 16, 2008
Made for dramatic readings over drinks with a little dinner and friends. Really brilliant.
April 22, 2008
Candy for English nerds. Like, chocolate truffles with caramel centers or something.
April 5, 2013
Clever and delightfully amusing...Francis Heaney is smarter and funnier than most human beings you are likely to meet.
Read
July 28, 2011Rad.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews