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Light Verse is a term applied to a great variety that use an ordinary speaking voice and a relaxed manner to treat their subject gaily, or playfully, or wittily or with good-natured satire. The subject mater of light verse need not be in itself petty or inconsequential; the defining quality is the tone of voice used, and the attitude of lyric or narrative speaker toward the subject. Thomas Love Peacock's "The War Song of Dinas Vawr" (1829) begins
The mountain sheep are sweeter,
But the valley sheep are fatter;
We therefore deemed it meeter
To carry off the latter.
The mountain sheep are sweeter,
But the valley sheep are fatter;
We therefore deemed it meeter
To carry off the latter.
And it ends:
We brought away from battle,
And much their land bemoaned them,
Two thousand head of cattle,
And the head of him who owned them:
Ednyfed,king of Dyfed,
His head was borne before us;
His wine and beasts supplied our feasts,
And his overthrow, our chorus.
And much their land bemoaned them,
Two thousand head of cattle,
And the head of him who owned them:
Ednyfed,king of Dyfed,
His head was borne before us;
His wine and beasts supplied our feasts,
And his overthrow, our chorus.
The dispassionate attitude, brisk colloquialism, and pat rhymes cover what could be a matter for epic or tragedy into a comic narrative that qualifies as light verse.
Source: A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H. Abrams
Source: A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H. Abrams