Poetry

Ring Lardner was one of the most prolific humorists of the early 20th century. While he was most famous for the frequent appearances of his short fiction in numerous popular magazines of the era, he was also a prolific writer of poetry. His daily column for the Chicago Tribune entitled “In the Wake of the News” was generally a sports news column, but oftentimes served as a platform to publish his poetry. Many of his more sentimental poems from this column—the ones written about his children—would later be compiled in Bib Ballads. Lardner’s second poetry compilation, Regular Fellows I Have Met, is a series of nearly 200 poems about Lardner’s friends and colleagues—some of whom would go on to become incredibly famous, while others remained regular, everyday fellows.

Lardner’s poetry, like his prose, has a recognizable voice. His sports journalism roots are made apparent by his frequent and satirical overuse of abbreviations. The verse is always cheerful, one might even say whimsical, in its rhythm and meter, despite the subjects often including gallows humor. Though his poems were all written for and published in different media like newspapers, magazines, and books, Lardner brings a consistent voice to his entire poetic corpus.