"Happy Thought" by Robert Louis Stevens
"The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevens
"Trees" by Joyce Kilmer

"The Turtle" by Vachel Lindsay
"The Turtle" by Ogden Nash

Cleverness in poetry will only get you so far, but I think that angst-ridden poets who pour their heart, soul, blood, phlegm, and bile into their verses could learn a thing or two from these examples, which demonstrate the potential of poetry to delight.

Why?

Art covers the full range of human emotions -- including cheerfulness. I've had students who expect all poetry to be like what they find in Hallmark cards -- light and snappy, with simple rhymes, and only a single point to make. Happy people who live stable lives and who write poems about bright rainbows and fluffy bunnies just aren't very interesting, artistically. It's the threatened, terrified, and dying people do things worth writing about (and reading about).

In part, I offer these poems to make up for the fact that English professors tend to assign depressing works. But these poems are worth examining not because they are cheerful, but rather beacause they are good examples of the efficient use of language. If you study how poems use language in order to delight, then you can focus on creating an emotional effect in the reader, rather than simply expressing the feelings inside you.

If you create poems out of a need to express the innermost, deepest feelings that would otherwise go unexpressed, then you'll end up with poems that mean quite a bit to you (because you mention a song that was important to you, the name of a person who invokes strong feelings, or a place that holds emotional significance for you), but leaves your readers scratching their heads.

In addition, once you've mastered delight, you can subvert your newfound talent to make poetry that totally creeps people out. (See Dr. Arnzen's Gorelets.)