Wendy Cope (born July 21, 1945) is a contemporary English poet. Born in Erith, south-east London, she was educated at Farringtons School and went on to read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Winchester with the poet Lachlan Mackinnon. July 21 is the 202nd day (203rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 163 days remaining. ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... A poet is someone who writes poetry. ... Erith is a place in the London Borough of Bexley, south east London, United Kingdom. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of the United Kingdom and the largest city of England (strangely, England has no constitutional existence within the United Kingdom, and therefore cannot be said to have a capital). ... St Hildas College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... Statistics Population: 40,000 Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: SU485295 Administration District: City of Winchester Shire county: Hampshire Region: South East England Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: Hampshire Historic county: Hampshire Services Police force: Hampshire Constabulary Fire and rescue: {{{Fire}}} Ambulance: South Central Post office... Lachlan Mackinnon (b. ...

Three books of her poetry have been published (Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis in 1986, Serious Concerns in 1992 and If I Don't Know in 2001), and she has edited several anthologies of comic verse. She won the Michael Braude Award for Light Verse in 1995, and If I Don't Know (dedicated to Lachlan Mackinnon) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award in 2001. The Michael Braude Award for Light Verse is a biennial award given for light verse in the English language, regardless of the authors nationality. ...

Despite her slight output, her books have sold well and she has attracted a popular following with her lighthearted, often comical poetry, as well as achieving literary credibility. She has a keen eye for the everyday, mundane aspects of English life, especially the desires, frustrations, hopes, confusions and emotions in intimate relationships. The bathetic aspect to her work has led to comparisons with Philip Larkin, although her work evidences a genuine warmth and affection for humanity in contrast to his ennui. Bathos is Greek for depth. ... Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist and jazz critic. ...

Some of her poems are written in the persona of a struggling male poet, Jason Strugnell, a slightly seedy figure from Tulse Hill. She displays her talent for parody with targets ranging from the sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney: Tulse Hill is a district and hill in the London Borough of Lambeth in London, England. ... Parody of Back to the Future In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... Philip Sidney Sir Philip Sidney (November 30, 1554 – October 17, 1586) became one of the Elizabethan Ages most prominent figures. ...

My true love hath my heart and I have hers
We swapped last Tuesday and felt quite elated
But now whenever one of us refers
To 'my heart' things get rather complicated.

to reducing T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land to limericks: Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 ? January 4, 1965) was a poet, dramatist and literary critic, whose works, such as The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, and Four Quartets, are considered defining achievements of twentieth century Modernist poetry. ... T. S. Eliot (by E. O. Hoppe, 1919) The Waste Land (sometimes mistakenly written as The Wasteland) is a highly influential 433-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot. ... A limerick is a five-line poem with a strict meter, popularized by Edward Lear and Charlie Murphy. ...

In April one seldom feels cheerful;
Dry stones, sun and dust make me fearful;
Clairvoyants distress me,
Commuters depress me—
Met Stetson and gave him an earful.

Bibliography

• Across the City Priapus Press (limited edition), 1980
• Hope and the 42 Other Branch Readings, 1984
• Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis Faber and Faber, 1986
• Poem from a Colour Chart of House Paints (limited edition) Priapus Press, 1986
• Does She Like Word Games? Anvil Press, 1988
• Men and Their Boring Arguments Wykeham, 1988
• Twiddling Your Thumbs Faber and Faber, 1988
• Is That the New Moon? (editor) HarperCollins, 1989
• The River Girl Faber and Faber, 1991
• Serious Concerns Faber and Faber, 1992
• The Faber Book of Drink, Drinkers and Drinking (contributor) Faber and Faber, 1993
• The Orchard Book of Funny Poems (editor) Orchard, 1993
• The Squirrel and the Crow Prospero Poets, 1994
• Poems 1 (contributor) Addison Wesley Longman, 1995
• Another Day on Your Foot and I Would Have Died (contributor) Macmillan, 1996
• Casting a Spell (contributor) Faber and Faber, 1996
• Marigolds Grow Wild on Platforms: An Anthology of Railway Poetry (contributor) Ward Lock, 1996
• Over the Moon: Championship Football Poems (contributor) Red Fox, 1996
• A Draft of XXX Cantos (contributor) Faber and Faber, 1997
• Dear Future: A Time Capsule of Poems (contributor) Hodder & Stoughton, 1997
• Evergreen Verse (contributor) Dent, 1997
• For All Occasions (contributor) Methuen, 1997
• Funnybones (contributor) CollinsEducational, 1998
• Silly Bones (contributor) Scholastic, 1998
• The Funny Side: 101 Humorous Poems (editor) Faber and Faber, 1998
• The Epic Poise: A Celebration of Ted Hughes (contributor) Faber and Faber, 1999
• The Faber Book of Bedtime Stories (editor) Faber and Faber, 1999
• Big Orchard Book of Funny Poems (editor) Orchard, 2000
• Heaven on Earth: 101 Happy Poems (editor) Faber and Faber, 2001
• If I Don't Know Faber and Faber, 2001
• Is That The New Moon?: Poems by Women Poets (selector) Collins, 2002
• George Herbert: Verse and Prose (selector and introduction) SPCK, 2003

External links

• Wendy Cope at www.contemporarywriters.com