Talk:Limerick (poetry)

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[edit] Page purpose

Hmmm this is where you post bulletins about anything so we can get back to you.

Jimmy Star

I wonder if anyone will ever use this? yo wats up my name is sao joe

No - this is where you discuss changes to the article. --maveric149

Why doesn't Limerick direct here? It is a much much more commonly used to refer to the form of poetry than to the physical location.

Charlie Murphy? I've never heard him recite a limerick. I assume this is vandalism? Tudwell 02:34, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rhythm

Would anyone object to changing it to more properly explain the Rhythm of a limerick? It is not based on amphibrachs, but on iambs and anapests, possibly with feminine or dactylic rhyme. I can show sources about this. Metzby 07:30, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

More technical information about limericks would be good - the page is currently dominated by lists of examples. Ewx 08:43, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

80.200.246.35 (talk) 10:31, 22 May 2008 (UTC) New post, different person:

I agree with this. I wrote the following on the discussion page of the amphibrach:

Aren't limericks really constructed of three dactylic feet(loud soft soft), the last one being a catlectic (unfinished)?

So, instead of:

"There was a | young lady | of Wantage"

you would get:

"There |was a young| La dy of | wan tage"

Looking at musical notation, this would make a lot more sense. The musical 'one' is really on the strong beats. So the word "there" really is a type of up-beat, like you get at the beginning of a lot of music, both classical and popular.

It is very easy to put limericks to music, but if you do, you'll find that they are a waltz, in 3/4 time. This means that the strong beats have to be on the first beat. Therefore, at least in my opinion, the first line of a limerick really consists of three dactylic feet, not anapestic ones.

The extra word "There" is just an up-beat, an extra unstressed syllable before the real thing begins. I'd be interested to hear people's ideas on this!

[edit] Example

Must think of a better example. The metre is wrong on the current one -- Tarquin

Is it better after taking out the vandalism from a couple months ago? --Brion

Much. I obviously didn't read that closely... it's pre-breakfast in my time zone :-) -- Tarquin

[edit] Scan

[edit] Fair maiden

"There was a fair maiden of Exeter
Who was so cute that guys craned their necks at her
And even one brave
Young fellow did wave
The distinguishing mark of his sex at her."
doesn't scan, the second line is too long and has emphasis in the wrong places. -- SGBailey 2003-12-16

I've now changed the above to a better scanning variant. -- SGBailey 2003-12-16

There 'was a fair 'maiden of 'Exeter

Who was 'so cute that 'guys craned their 'necks at her

And 'even one 'brave

Young 'fellow did 'wave

The dis'tinguishing 'mark of his 'sex at her.

Each line in itself scan OK, though you might be tempted to try "so 'cute". "Brave" is weak, though, as it links the 3rd and 4th line, and hence the unweary will interpret it as a noun. Your version is better there.

What is wrong with the scan is that the (top) lines don't have the same structure. Eg. with the same second line, this version doesn't seem as bad:

There once 'was a fair 'maiden of 'Exeter

Who was 'so cute that 'guys craned their 'nexeter;

And 'even one 'brave

Did 'take out and 'wave

The dis'tinguishing 'mark of his 'sexeter.

Should we add this requirement to the structure text? Aliter 15:54, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Better young lady of Exeter

I've heard a version I think a good deal more highly of than the suggestions above:

There was a young lady of Exeter

So fair, that men craned their necks at 'er.

One went so far

As to wave from his car

The distinguishing mark of his sex at 'er.

Not only scans and rhymes nicely, but avoids the style collisions of "fair maiden", "cute", and "guys". And the car's funny.--Bishonen | talk 10:36, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

I don't know what sugestions you're talking about, but I don't see how the version you quote scans better than the version SGBailey contributed. It may be, though, that you place the stress different from how I read it; I can't tell for sure. (Also, how is it that "guys" is a style collision but "car" is funny?) Aliter 14:38, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Halisbury-Scalisbury

Also
"There was a young curate of Sarum (Salisbury)
Whose manners were ALL harem-scarem (Halisbury-Scalisbury)
He wandered round Hants (Hampshire)
Without any pants (pampshire)
Till the Vicar compelled him to Wear'em (Warisbury)"
Again the scan isn't quite right. Line two would be better with padding such as ALL added and the last line isn't quite balanced... -- SGBailey 2003-12-16

Again, due to the lines not being equally formed, in my opinion. Consider how this final line would fit:

Till 'God did or'dain him to 'Warisbury.

Aliter 15:54, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Ribald Nantucket

Should we put the dirty form of the "Old Man from Nantucket" limerick? Tuf-Kat 00:54, Mar 23, 2004 (UTC)

No, ít's non-functioal. We already have Nantucked and ribald themes. Aliter 15:54, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

I think it should be included, since it's one of the best-known limericks by far.

I've deleted the well known and often repeated Limerick, but not because I'm a hopeless American prude. In fact, whenever I want to recall the structure of a Limerick, "Old Man from Nantucket" is the one I recall. However, I'm a school teacher who really likes to refer his students to wikipedia and while I don't mind them occasionally finding adult content, the forces that be are deathly afraid of it. Its my fear that unneccessary profanity will add to a list of reasons our school's administrators will use to put wikipedia on the blocked list. That's not good for anyone.

Besides, most of the people who visit the Limerick page already know what Nantucket rhymes with.Rookery1 13:20, 6 November 2006 (UTC)rookery1

[edit] Translations

Should we add translations to the foreign Limericks? If so, is there anyone here who can read them? Aliter 15:54, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

I could translate German and Spanish

[edit] Early examples?

I'm reluctant to simply cut the whole section, but of the 'early examples': 'sumer is icumen in' doesn't remotely fit the limerick model, and nor do any of its constituent parts:

Sumer is ycomen in,
Loude sing cuckou!
Groweth seed and bloweth meed,
And springth the wode now.
Sing cuckou!

Ewe bleteth after lamb,
Loweth after calve cow,
Bulloc sterteth, bucke verteth,
Merye sing cuckou!
Cuckou, cuckou,
Wel singest thou cuckou:
Ne swik thou never now!

You can't even pick out the aabba rhyme-scheme from that, let alone in combination with the right metre.

The excerpt from 'Tom o' Bedlam' meets neither the metrical requirements nor, properly, the rhyme-scheme.

Since the examples from Shakespeare are not actually given, I can't judge them, but if they're anything like these examples, they don't fit the form; and anyway, you can't just take five lines out of context from a play and call it a 'limerick'. Does anyone have these examples? Because bits of coincidental similarity are not very relevent to the early history of the form. Harry R 11:22, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Lear

How do we know Lear's verses were typeset as four lines? I've now seen a few pages of his work, and they were typeset as three. Aliter 21:01, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

??? Where have you seen this? I have in front of me an edition of "Nonsense Books. By Edward Lear." Published in 1888 in Boston by Roberts Brothers. All of the limericks are typeset as four lines.

I also have a modern edition, "The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear, Collected and Introduced by Holbrook Jackson," "This Dover edition, first published in 1951, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the workd originally published by Faber and Faber Ltd. in 1947." All of the limericks are typeset as four lines.

I don't even understand how a limerick could be typeset as three lines. Modern limericks are usually typeset as five lines, and the usual error is to reproduce Lear's limericks in the same way. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 22:20, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Well, things are slightly more complicated than we thought at first. I've never seen a four-line Lear, but looking for an example of this I also found this. Aliter 22:26, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

That's very interesting. Those are certainly earlier sources than mine. Here's a page from my 1888 edition:

Four-line formatting

. Sorry for my casual misinformation, I've always seen older editions of Lear set as four lines and been irritated by newer editions setting them as five (as modern limericks always are). But apparently the story is complicated. One short, casual biography of Lear, Mr. Nonsense by Emery Kelen, gives no information on this. I wonder how he wrote them in manuscript? I wonder how much input he had into the format as typeset? Isn't it annoying that the nonsenselit site doesn't give any page images of the type in the interior pages... [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 11:38, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I've written to the writer of <http://www.nonsenselit.org>, who has informed me that Mr. Lear wrote them in manuscript basically in as much lines as there was room for beneath the picture. But in the first three editions, most are typeset as, respectively, three, five, and three lines. (The two-line example, I expect, again was a matter of available space.) I'll reword the note a bit. Aliter 23:34, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Early French example

Having done so I suddenly realized "A French example, from 1715" would be very early. Could it be it's merely about that year, rather than from? Aliter 00:20, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)

The contributor informed that the year is correct. What does that tell us about Limericks?

[edit] Salisbury

Can we expect the user to fill in the blanks, or do we really need to write this out? Aliter 14:18, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Re-writing

Does anybody care to take up the challenge of re-casting this article into limerick form? --Carnildo 06:30, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Someone wouldn't get it and it would be on VfD an hour later. —Ben Brockert (42) UE News 07:01, Jan 16, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Verdun

"There was a young man of Verdun ...which if completed would be a self-contradiction"

Maybe I'm just naïve, but I don't follow this train of thought. How would it be a self-contradiction? Kakashi-sensei 16:09, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The rhyming pattern clearly implies a second line of "whose limericks stopped at line one" --Carnildo 17:33, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Early example and true limerick

I took out all of this, for now, which is based on the claim that the "true limerick" is based on the dactylic. The claim does not fit very well with the current decription of the structure. If it could be substantiated, the claim should be incorporate in Structure, rather than History. Likwise, the rest, once made internally consistent, could then form a first paragraph of history about fore-runners or somesuch.

Start: The dactylic (long-short-short or 'tum-ti-ti') 'foot' or metric unit, on which the true limerick is based, goes back to classical Greece and is found in English poetry, usually of a humorous or satirical kind, from the middle thirteenth century - e.g. the political lyric Richard the Redeless, which begins (spelling modernised)

Sitteth all still and heark'neth to me!

By about 1500 this pattern was being applied in six-line stanzas which come very close to the limerick form. An early Tudor example, poking fun at the local cult of a Norfolk (U.K.) vicar who is said to have trapped the Devil in a boot, runs

Master John Shorne,

That blessèd man born,

For the ague to him we apply,

That juggleth with a boot;

I beshrew his heart-root

That will trust him, an it be I.

There is a very early example of the developed five-line form in the Cornish folksong Camborne Hill, which is supposed to commemorate Richard Trevithick's early experiments in steam-travel and should therefore date from about 1802:

Goin' up Camborne Hill, comin' down,

The horses stood still,

The wheels went around,

Goin' up Camborne Hill, comin' down.

End. Aliter 18:51, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Naughty version

Hi Aliter, I see you reverted my change where I merged the naughty limerick from the autofellatio page into the article. I think it's weird for us to mention that use of the limerick but not provide any further clarification. We can't omit mentioning that use completely because its so popular. --Gmaxwell 18:25, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

What I did was really to revert SPUI's addition of "sometimes about autofellatio". You did clarifiy his remark somewhat, but in my opinion the remark does not add anything.

Those unable to produce lewd rhymes for Nantucket are not likely to benefit from that remark either. "Sometimes" already indicates that it's not all that relevant, all the more so because it's purely a matter of rhyme; if the topic of autofelatio was of importance in limericks, then the actual word "autofelatio", or other equivalents, would also appear regularly.

As it is, this addition just adds words, without adding information. If you feel the relation is relevant to autofelatio, you might consider adding it there instead. Aliter 18:40, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Favourite Limericks

Maybe there should be a special page for Wikipedians' favourite limericks. I'll go first:

There was a young man from Belgrave

Who kept a dead whore in a cave

He said "I admit

I'm a bit of a shit,

But think of the money I save". JackofOz 12:35, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

I think this one flows a little better if you insert "have to" into line 3, making it:

There was a young man from Belgrave

Who kept a dead whore in a cave

He said "I have to admit

I'm a bit of a shit,

But think of the money I save".

If you say it out loud, it flows better, even if it's not exactly according to the meter.RSido 02:03, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

I can't see what you are referring to. When I read the first version it reads perfectly. When I read the second, the third line is way too long. In order to make it work you have to cram the first four words into two sylable spaces. Those two lines become aaabaabaabaab instead of abaabaabaab. The entire structure is of the aba sequence. deepsack (talk) 08:04, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

The below are my creations: TymnBalewne

The professor of maths aimed to tutor us

But after the class? What he'd do to us

With a girl he would snack

On her small fur-lined crack

With a boy he would eat out his pooterus.

She stopped by for a fag and a whinge

One drink turned to two then a binge

She dropped a lit match

Right onto her snatch

And her minge felt a twinge from the singe

On Christmas my uncle would ring us

A carol he pleasured to sing us

To hear him was rough

For he was face down in muff

While he sang he performed cunnilingus. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TymnBalewne (talk • contribs) 08:40, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Non-rhyming

There was a young man of St Bees

Who was stung in the arm by a wasp

They asked, "Does it hurt?"

He replied, "No it doesn't"

I'm glad that it wasn't a hornet

Just wanted to mention that the version I heard goes:

There once was a man from Dundee

Who was stung on the nose by a wasp

When asked, "Did it hurt?"

He said, "No, not at all,

"Thank goodness it wasn't a hornet."

--Nick R^Talk 10:38, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The article attributes this limerick to Sir Arthur Sullivan, but I've always thought it was by W. S. Gilbert. Is there any evidence one way or the other? AndrewWTaylor 07:31, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

I also have heard it was Gilberts. I'm going to change it, pending actual sourcing one way or another. JesseW, the juggling janitor 01:53, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm very confused here. How can these be limericks when a limerick requires rhymes? Isn't that a contradiction? Wouldn't these just be poems with a limerick like meter? deepsack (talk) 08:09, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

deepsack, note that it's in a section entitled 'Anti-limericks', so, you're right, this isn't a limerick, but rather (as the article says) a parody of a limerick, subverting the structure of the limerick by deliberately eschewing the expected rhyme. -- Jmc (talk) 09:29, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Gay Caballero??

Limericks, when sung, are almost exclusively sung to the tune of "The Gay Caballero". and Limericks have been propagated in the English language primarily through being sung.

Really?? I have rarely heard limericks sung, I'd never heard of "The Gay Caballero" before I looked it up today (though admittedly it is in limerick form), and I have no idea how it goes. Googling doesn't produce many relevant results. I also notice that the section about tunes was added on 1st April. Can anyone produce any evidence to support this claim? If not I reckon it should be deleted. Blisco 20:01, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

OK, seeing as no-one's responded to this I've gone ahead and deleted all references to sung limericks. It may be true that limericks are sometimes sung, but the text as it stood was almost certainly untrue and of very limited notability. Blisco 19:50, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

The 'Sung limericks' section seems to have crept back in again, in an even more confused and confusing form. To quote: "Limericks have been sung as a traditional humorous drinking song with mostly obscene verses. The song ...". Are we talking about sung limericks in general or one song in particular?

My main objection, however, is that the inclusion of such a long and detailed section on a (apparently) single limerick greatly unbalances the article.

Given the various demurrals, including those of Blisco above, which still stand, I propose to (once more) remove the 'Sung limericks' section. --Jmc 19:21, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Absent any feedback on my proposal, I've repeated Blisco's deletion of references to sung limericks (27 April 2006), with the same rationale: "the text as it stood was almost certainly untrue and of very limited notability". -- Jmc (talk) 19:22, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lear: "mostly aimed towards nonsense"

The article says Lear's limericks were "mostly aimed toward nonsense."

That seems like unnecessary weasel-wording.

Can anyone cite a single example of a Lear limerick that was not "aimed toward nonsense?"

Given that he titled his book "A Book of Nonsense" it seems clear enough that Lear regarded them as nonsense, and (pace, exponents of the New Criticism, that would seem to be evidence enough for anyone. Dpbsmith (talk) 14:36, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

There was an old person whose habits Induced him to feed upon rabits

When he'd eaten eighteen he turned perfectly green

Upon which he relinguished those habits

Quit logical, and also a rare instance of Lear using the modern day rhyming scheme. Mysha

[edit] A little self-referencial sillyness

This line speaks of anapst three,

A limerick, thus, I must be,

This one has but two,

I'm sure that you knew,

This meter is really easy.

-- RoySmith (talk) 05:15, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] History

Didn't this page have a history of the Limerick, something like a year ago? Mysha

Added the History section from an old edit. I don't know where it disappeared. This section also needs references. serendipitousstl (email) 19:05, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Non-comic limericks?

Is the limerick necessarily a comic verse form? Could it be a vehicle for anything other than a comic sentiment - could you have a love limerick, for example? Or a religious limerick?

Can anyone cite counter-examples? -- Jmc 03:07, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

It used to say on the page that the modern limerick had a twist, I believe, not that it had to be comical.

Can't be too difficult:

In my life I've seen thousands of eyes

In every colour and size

But those the most blue

Are those two of you

I hope they never will see our goodbyes.

Mysha

Oh, that's very nice, Myasha - light, but definitely not comic. Thank you! -- Jmc 20:05, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Quotations

Those two references about the name, currently reference 1 and 2, are, judging by references on the web, from the fascicle containing the L, 1898, from the Oxford Dictionary 1928 edition. What is it that has to be referenced about Sumer is icumen in, currently the third reference, which has its own page? Mysha

[edit] Naughty Version

I question the necessity of including the naughty examples. Since Wikipedia is a research tool used by young students, I feel that a statement to the effect that naughty limericks are common, would be sufficient. If we wished, we could link to websites that have the full text of such limericks. Schools that allow access to Wikipedia for their students would be protected... I'm sort of thinking out loud here.

Hubby2debbie 01:44, 25 February 2007 (UTC)hubby2debbie

Agreed. We have too many as it is. Mysha

[edit] Lawyer Limerick

Is this a limerick? It's five lines, and has the right rhymes, but the meter may be off.
There once was a lawyer named Rex
In court over matters of sex
When charged with exposure
He replied with composure
"De minimis non curat lex"

(For non Latin speakers, this means "The law does not care about small ["things" understood]" RSido 00:21, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it's slightly off: The reason is that ideally the meter continues over the lines. Especially the two short lines are supposed to form one long one. (Is this in the article?) But combined they have three unstressed syllables, here. I expect a perfect meter is unobtainable here, due to the stress of the Latin after "compo-sure", but this fixes the short lines:

A lawyer in Roma named Rex

In court over matters of sex,

When charged with exposure,

Replied with composure:

"De minimis non curat lex."

Additionally you might want to add an unstressed syllable at the start of line two (and one). Mysha

Here's a compromise:

There's a lawyer in Rome name Rex

in court over matters of sex.

When charged with exposure,

replies with composure,

"De minimis non curat lex"

I think this is a little bit better, mostly because it changes the tense slightly to match the latin.

Well, "Rome" probably has to stay "Roma" to keep the right number of syllables. It's still a nice effort, though, but I don't think it's really necessary. The latin is, after all, a quote. It's like telling a story, when for example you say:

Roland said: 'O Durendal, a fair sword art thou!'

The difference in the tenses comes from the fact that Roland lived in the time of Charlemagne, in our past, but the words that are quoted speak of his present time. Mysha

[edit] Link to a poetry website/limericks

I would like to add a link to the "limerick" section of a live, online poetry website, this is an ongoing writing challenge for limerick writers (2000 entries in last 12 months). I tried to add the link myself, but it has been deleted!. We have permision from the Moderator. The link is http://www.thestarlitecafe.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?54843/103386 Can we please set this link up?.... Rowly fhjf7yir67ir67i6r7i

[edit] Permission obtained for mathematical limerick

I have obtained permission from the author to publish the mathematical limerick in communication conventions and sent it to the Wikipedia permissions email address

DavidRobertCollett 00:09, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removing Limericks

I am going to start removing limericks which are not demonstratively from public domain sources. If anyone wishes to keep or add more limericks, then DOCUMENT the source. Show that it is NOT copyrighted.

serendipitousstl (email) 20:28, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Unless permission has been obtained? Mysha

I dissent. Aside from the oddity of requiring people to prove a negative, we're dealing with folk materials, from the oral tradition here; makes it a special case. Bravo for deletions that prevent the article from becoming an anthology, but quotations that illustrate something about the topic fall within fair use, seems to me. DavidOaks 19:08, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank God nobody has copyright of The Pearl ...

BTW: I´m going to get permission for the Swiss/German "Keiserick" from the copyrightholders. fak119

Hello everyone. What if I write a limerick and license it for use on Wikipedia, does this entitle me to place it in a Wikipedia article? At this rate, everyone will have their limericks in the article because every will be adding their own "vanity" limericks. Someone will *still* have to go through and remove limericks, not because of copyright issues, but because the article will be unreadable.

serendipitousstl (email) 14:49, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

I have started to removed no verified limericks and translations. Once that is done, I would like general recommendations on combining / merging sections. Any advise?

serendipitousstl (email) 14:49, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, I have the impression the article was more readable a year ago. (Somewhere in the time where you also found the disappeared history? Speaking of the history: you wrote it needed references. I wrote something on that somewehere above.) Counting the number of limericks it had then, and reducing the current number to match, might help. After that it should be easy to merge the then orphaned bits of text into proper paragraphs again. But I guess the article needs a remark "This articles does not need more examples!" at strategic points, to keep the same thing from happening again. Mysha

[edit] History Edit

Changed wording as the orgin of the word limerick is not at all obscure; the origin of its use referring to a type of poem is what is obscure. Further provided full reference for this, including for dates of first known publication.Joevanisland 20:09, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Also fixed Sumer Is Icumen In reference as it should be mid-13th century, not 1300 the year, and provided another missing citation.Joevanisland 20:21, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citation needed?

Do you really need a citation for an example showing how limericks can involve wordplay? Clearly it involves wordplay, anyone who understands the words can tell by looking at it. I don't need an expert to verify that for me. Same for most the other examples. 'Is this a french limerick? Well it's a limerick and in french, so I better ask a professor!' I (perhaps too hopefully) assume you are really looking copyright permission? Still that likely absurd since many limericks are folk works, both old and/or with the author unknown. Thus I'm recommending removing the [citation needed] tags. 132.249.102.242 23:43, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Redraft of article structure

This article reads quite poorly, probably at least in part because of repeated vandalism or poorly judged contributions followed by attempts to revert or repair. I have therefore made an attempt to redraft the article structure, as well as adding in some further historical notes from my own researches. I have tried to take into account the comments made above about readability, content and citation issues. I don't claim that the work is finished, but I hope the new form is a good starting-point for others to improve it further from here.

I've removed a number of example limericks, retaining just a few which I believe illustrate specifically a portion of the article. Some of the examples I've removed are very clever, but Mysha makes a good point above about readability. This is an article about limericks (poetry), not a catalog of examples. There are several other examples I would have loved to add too, but I have tried to stay disciplined!

Further comments/suggestions welcome of course. Mooncow 00:56, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

I should also have mentioned that I removed quite a bit of material that duplicated the entry at limerick song, replacing it with a link to that article. Mooncow 01:02, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, Mooncow, for your redrafting - a considerable improvement, I believe. I was disappointed that Fak119 initially reverted it, though the action was perhaps understandable, given that at that stage the above background hadn't been provided. So thanks, too, for now providing that! -- Jmc 02:46, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ophelia's Limericks?

While this may be original research, I found that one of Ophelia's songs in Hamlet (Act 4, Scene 5) seemed to be a good example of a Limerick, namely:

And will he not come again?

No, no, he is dead;

Go to thy deathbed;

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as snow,

All flaxen was his poll.

He is gone, he is gone,

And we cast away moan.

God 'a'mercy on his soul!

We know he used limericks in King Lear and Othello. [1] Would this be important to add to the article? Orville Eastland 22:56, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Meta-limericks

there should be a section on meta-limericks, that is, limericks about limericks

meter isn't right on this one, but:

There was an old Limerick with the flu,

Who lived with his zebra and gnu.

And here's a verse

even worse than the first;

He thought he was a haiku.

[edit] More Anti Lyrics

Found these

A newspaper poet for Hearst

Deprived of his reason

By uncontrolled sneezing

Was by phantasmal demons coerced

To write all of his limericks reversed.

By the author, 1983.

Prior written consent

Is required to present

It on radio, film, or TV.

if ( i = t^2 + e)

& (e = 14 + 3)

Then i > pi

& e > i

& (e/pi) i 4 t

Pronounced:

if i equals t squared plus e

and e equals forteen plus three

then i is greater than pi

and e is greater then i

and e divides pi by i for t

There once was a fellow from Xiangling

China. Whose delight was in mangling

Poems. He would drop

Words between lines and lop

Their ends off, and leave readers dang

A lady whose name was McCord

Once over this limerick pored

To find the evil design

Hidden in the last line

But alas, she could not see the

A cardiac patient named Fred

Made a limerick up in his head.

But before he had time

To write down the last line

[edit] for deletion?

The following insertion seems unclear (to me) in its relevance, and needs sourcing -- I suggest it be deleted; thoughts? DavidOaks (talk) 21:15, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

The twist in the following anti-limerick is its modern play on traditional limerick identity and language.

There once was man I'll call Bardney Who merengued his way from Miami, To meet Irish dears, Who served copius beers And all he could cry was "Carajo! Pero donde esta mi arroz con pollo?"

Its relevance is unclear to me too and I agree it needs sourcing. You have my support for deletion. -- Jmc (talk) 22:43, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't look relevant to me either. I've removed it. Even if it is genuine, and an explanation could be added, we need to resist the temptation to become a catalog of limericks -- examples included need to earn their place by clearly illustrating a significant point. Mooncow (talk) 02:16, 8 March 2008 (UTC)