Grooks

This is a a Grook. A grook ("gruk" in Danish) is a form of short aphoristic poem. It was invented by the Danish poet and scientist, Piet Hein. He wrote over 7,000 of them, most in Danish or English, published in 20 volumes. His Grooks first started to appear in the daily newspaper "Politiken" shortly after the Nazi Occupation in April 1940 under the signature Kumbel Kumbell. The poems were meant as a spirit-building, yet slightly coded form of passive resistance against Nazi occupation during World War II. Grooks are characterized by irony. paradox, brevity, precise use of language, sophisticated rhythms and rhymes and are often of a satiric nature.

Although his works have long been out of print in the UK they can easily be obtained from
http://www.borgen.dk/engelske/piet_hein.htm