Nonsense, like poetry, is a kind of game, with...

Jul 18, 2008

“ Nonsense, like poetry, is a kind of game, with rules or requirements. Neither is pointless play like that endless horsies whinnying and prancing thing girls do, or that strange martial arts sequence by which small boys advance through rooms. Play assumes that there is no end. Games (nonsense and poetry) assume there is—if only for the sake of seeing it thwarted.

— Kay Ryan on humor and poetry (also on the cartoonlike qualities of Emily Dickinson)