It's learning time again here at You Lite 'Em... Will Burnham. Today's lesson is about the limerick. First seen in 1846, in London in Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense, limericks proudly broke into what had been the one, unbroachable frontier in proper English society: smut! To many the limerick is the Rodney Dangerfield of poetry. Crass and obnoxious and not suitable for mixed company. It's a five line stanza in spondaic hexameter, alternating with amphibrachs and amphimacers. Yeah, I don't know what any of that means either. I leave it to any of my visitors who are English majors to explain. The vehicle for what is unspeakable, the limerick embrace topics such as: virginity, organs (not the musical kind either), the clergy, sexual substitutes, animal husbandry (seems rather aptly named), prostitution, diseases, bodily waste and that well endowed gent from Nantucket or that alien lady from Venus. There really is a day for everything. So do you have any favorite limericks? I'm trying to come up with one based on my commute. So far this is all I have...
Will has a real long commute
On his horn he does beat and make toot...
hello Will, my wild the american fiend.
you not toknow that habid is studying his enlash at the university to prepare for the eventual trip to the america. I have to heard that the old man in your state not like the mcTheDonalds to not very much thank you understand. so habid to learn much better englash.
We to study the limerick, heres the little ditty from habid,
Very attractive young the lass
Built walls of her bedroom all the glass;
All the guys on the street
Got a neighborly of the treat
When she walked around showing her the ass.
habid
Posted by: on May 12, 2004 10:38 AM....
"On the road, he was freakin'
Awefully loud he was speakin'
Yelling, This sucks the Great Hairy Root!!"
( what? you asked for input from English majors)
Posted by: Lynn on May 12, 2004 11:25 AM"...Limericks proudly broke into what had been the one, unbroachable frontier in proper English society: smut!"
Oh, but nay - bawdy catches and other drinking songs had existed for many a year before the limmerick, and were enjoyed by ploughman and gentry alike. Shakespeare's plays are simply loaded with the stuff, as many of his comic characters were written to appeal to "low" humour.
I invite you to check out "The Art of the Bawdy Song" recorded by the Baltimore Consort and The Merry Companions. All the tunes are over 250 years old, and the disc is probably the only one in the classical music section that bears a "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" label (at least, it used to).
To quote:
"Taking his beer with old Anacharsis,
Quoth surly swashbuckler,
'Your wife, sir, mine arse is.'
'Vous avez,' quoth Sage, 'She's a homely, brown lass,'
'But after a bumper or two, she may pass...'
Fatty and Skinny went to bed
Fatty rolled over
and Skinny was dead.
it's the only one I could think of....
or the classic...
There once was a man from Nantucket
Whose dick was so long he could suck it
He said with a grin
As he wiped off his chin,
"If my ear were a cunt I would fuck it!"
always funny!
Posted by: mm on May 12, 2004 11:50 AMWill has a real long commute
On his horn he does beat and make toot
He screamed "Hey, SUCK IT!"
At a Hummer from Nantucket
And pummeled the driver with fruit.
Habid ask of you to reboot the PC
Not to scan the disk, don't you see.
all the day the calls for help
Just like eating Kelp
Habid the master of PC
Posted by: habid el sharif on May 12, 2004 02:09 PMI've never actually seen the entire "Nantucket" one before. Just the first line. Now I know!
Posted by: Sunidesus on May 12, 2004 05:14 PMThere once was a man from Nantucket
Who saved all his cash in a bucket
His daughter, named Nan
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket
There are several "man from Nantucket" limericks, and that's the only tame one.
Posted by: Thomas Atkinson on May 14, 2004 02:10 PMI've seen an entire book devoted to limericks, including a lot of the old classics (19th century and up), though I'll be darned if I can remember what it's called or who it's by.
I once had a friend who owned a shirt that said: "I AM the man from Nantucket."
Posted by: Jaime on May 15, 2004 10:21 PMIf it’s true that the past is prologue,
Mr. Wharhol cut straight through the fog.
If you want to lay claim
To your minutes of fame,
Then your future belongs to the blog!