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The Obligatory Limericks Game Reincarnated
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And so it begins....
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You call me a bibliophile
And also a nerd - after while
And maybe a geek
But I know I'm a freak
I can sprint an eighteen-minute mile.
At Redemption (SF convention last weekend) there were a couple of flyers for another convention (Year of the Teledu) with just the first line of a limerick on them. Alas, they never got finished over the weekend. Can we do better? Here is how far they had got when I last saw them:
A teledu of my acquaintance      A Sumatran badger that stank
Has purchased a gaudy conveyance      Lived deep in a hole, dark and dank
It's painted bright blue      . . . . . . . .
And filled with beef stew      . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .      . . . . . . . . . . . .
A teledu of my acquaintance
Has purchased a gaudy conveyance
It's painted bright blue
And filled with beef stew
Its odour holds all in abeyance.

A Sumatran badger that stank
Lived in a deep hole, dark and dank
Its one pride and joy
.......
Was an old Dinky toy
In fact, a Centurian tank...moving on
I once had a toy made by Dinky
I had five; in Latin that's quinque.
The JCB digger
Five hundred times bigger
Than your or even my pinkie
My 'pinkie' is longer than most are
It's been Michelin-rated as "four star"
And as fingers go
It's something to show
‘cause it’s thin as a worm, how bizarre
It is said that in parts of Japan
You can bat away men with your fan
And if you're a geisha
Who hails from Croatia
Then it's likely your fan is a man
I trow everything that I ween
And I hight what yclept I'd e'er been
And what's more - just hear this
- I rede what I wis
Now get out! @*&#...? I'm purging my spleen!
And with that, things arrived at a halt
'Though they perked up when one added salt
Which proves we're not slugs
Or earthworms, or bugs
We're just perfect, in fact, to a fault
I love you; you're perfect; now change.
I'd rather you did something strange
Tape a worm to your face
Take a fall down from grace
And develop a bad case of mange.
I seem to've developed a tic
Whenever I chew on my Bic®
My tongue starts to bleed
I spill all my seed - oo-er
And, in general, things get on my wick
That's no tic, that is pre-menstrual tension!
You'll have it until you draw pension!
What a woman must bear
In her days of 'bad hair'
Affects all her bits, by extension.
[Rosie] Excellent!

I'm writing a Hip Hop revue
And casting it -- how about you?
The April audition
Takes place on condition (Pj) Thanks.
That by failing you will not sue
When coffee supplies are short
We rush to the gate of the fort
And brew the moat's water
Like lambs to the slaughter
“Manslaughter!” (the cook’s doom in court)
"We're ready for take-off, get strapped"
"If you leave your seat, you'll get slapped"
"From your EasyJet crew"
"And Ryan Air too"
"We prefer pass-en-gers to be trapped!"
While cooking some nice chippolatas
To eat with nice mashed 'potatas'
I found that my beans
Were be-yond my means
It's a good job they came free and gratis.
I just ate a pineapple, chopped
At the end of my meal I just stopped
For I saw half a worm
With a lovely blue perm
It had certainly been 'Photo-Shopped'.
When you fall down a bottomless well
Your speed will increase like hell
You will notice a draught
And a sulphurous waft
With a distictive rotten egg smell
While murd'ring a Chopin Mazurka
I put down the Socialist Worker
PS. [Rosie] Having a flashback?
Retrograde amnesia
In the mines of Silesia
Thank god I was wearing the burka. can't see the relevance of lines 3 and 4, but hey...
Apparently, eggs are the thing
I'd say they are better than bling
When worn round the neck
They look stupid - but heck
Weren't Faberges fit for a king?
That genial chap Barry Cryer
Is a famously infrequent flyer
He mostly takes cabs
To his various rehabs
And his cycling is said to be dire
A friend of a friend of a friend
Has driven me right round the bend
This tenuous acquaintance Gotta gloss over a syllable in tenuous there
Is rather high-maint'ance Gotta gloss over a syllable there too.
And may not survive in the end. (Proj, penpenpenult.) I've killed the bloody lot, mate. :-)
No man is an island, they say
'Though Manxmen might just disagré
They chat and they hug less
And stay shy of Douglas
And they never come out to play
A headache at five is just great
If it leaves by a quarter to eight
But if it should stay
For most of the day
Romance is farfetched for your mate
While painting my room yellow ochre
I received an odd call from my broker
"You're quite in the red"
"You've no green stuff," he said
Now quit playing Black Jack and Poker!
I long for a long-lasting night
Where my fancy can truly take flight
But sadly, I lack
The relevant knack
To get all the works all upright
A lovely young mayor named Ken
Convened the town council at 'ten'
He loudly decreed
"From traffic be freed!"
And may all traffic lights stick at zen!"
Oh, play me those hot ragtime blues!
I'm wearing my new dancing shoes
I'm ready to bop
Or even Hip-hop
And you can all clap from the pews
The happiest one of my days
Was when I stole from the Krays
A vegetable squeezer
An upright fridge freezer
And a bra that clad Modesty Blaise
There once was a lad from old Bristol
Who roamed around town with a pistol
He only shot blanks
For which we give thanks
'cos the whole bloody town's made of crystal.
S,K,SM,R,ISP - awesome
I met a small swami from Dili
Who wanted to move somewhere hilly
I suggested Nepal
Where the hills are so tall
You ascend; you transcend; you go silly.
There was an old codger from Fareham
Who liked women's clothes and would wear 'em
But when he went out
He was struck with this doubt:
Should I take me clothes off? That'd scare 'em!
The antics of Pepe le Pew
Apart from smelling were really quite few
In his amourous pursuits he shows more persistence than Robert the Bruce's spider
Oops...wrong move , wrong game... nix that
The ladies he hounded
[irach] understandable mistake .. given the bizarre scansion in line 2 :-) Think I'll wait for the next one to come along.
[Chalky] You can wait ages for one...
[IS,P] how right you are!
By odour confounded
Their senses. They all joined the queue.
Perambulatoriously
I once ran into Aldous L Huxley
[irach] eek! far-be-it-for-me-mention-the-dreaded-scansion-word ... but hey - I've said it :-)
[Chalky] Hey, it was just clerihew that had got lost.
He looked at me wryly This one works well enough for me
Then stated quite dryly:
[irach] Did you think mine was perambulatoriously? Nah. I meant Perambulatoriously
[Simons] I think Chalky's talking about line 2 of this one which don't follow line 1. My reading of line 1 was as Projoy intended. Let's try and fix it.
Perambulatoriuosly
I ran into Aldous Huxley
He looked at me wryly
Then stated quite dryly:
You're not wearing knickers, I see.
Is that OK?
[ISP, Chalky] If you read mine the first way, irach's line does actually scan (and almost rhyme), to wit:
Perambulatoriously
I once ran into Aldous L Huxley
...so it depends if you think irach misinterpreted the natural stress pattern of my made-up word (which admittedly was difficult to do because in the word perambulator, the second and fourth syls are stressed in a not very limerickish way. Then again, if you were American, then peramulatory would be limericky, but the UK pronunciation would not. Then again, by analogy with notoriously, you might have realised the "correct" stress. Then again, one does naturally attempt to stress "once" in irach's line, before reading "ran". All in all, quite complicated. Maybe I'd better stick to real words hereon.
Muliebrity nudiastertian (look 'em up!)
Improves on my prior male version nudiustertian, actually
But now it's today
[PJ, ISP, Irach] I can quite see that differing the stress pattern can 'make it fit' but I still maintain that 10 syllabubs in a limerick line is too many. Losing the 'L' [as ISPers did] helps :-)
And I fear that I may [Pj] Nope, I still can't make it scan.
[IS,P] I can make it scan - I just don't understand it!
Become subject to gender recursion
The old lady who swallowed a fly
Has now got a gnat in her eye
Her nostrils have fleas
Her ears attract bees
And snakes wrap themselves round her thigh.
The builders are coming today
If they say that, you can only pray
That yesterday's news - I make no apologies.[SW] tricky one to follow which is probably why, once more!, the game has stalled
Doesn't bring on the blues
If so, play a twelve-bar in A.
nice :-)
Forget everything you were taught!
The sum of your knowledge is naught
Now with a clean sheet
Stand on just your two feet
And pretend we have freedom of thought
Forgive me for turning up late
For I know that is rude on a date
I had to make sure
You'd get here before
me, for I'm too impatient to wait. Rather glad to have finally disposed of this one.
[Rosie] Indeed, a week is a long time in limericks. I have stared fruitlessly at this one on numerous occasions. Good finish, I thought, under the circs.
His Highness, George Dubbleyer Bush
Has proclaimed, "We need just one more push!"
To win in the war
For oil, (we need more) (ISP) Not one of my best but cheers, anyway.
Shh! Condoleezza says that's hush-hush making the best of a bad job .. swiftly moving on...
The largesse of old Tony Blair
Has taken a decade to share
But soon he'll step down
For that twat Gordon Brown
But (by that point) nobody'll care!
[UK] Why not "no-one'll care"? Much better scansion.

The Party Political Beast

Once went West, but is now heading East
Its ravenous mouth
Bellows over the South
"Head North for famine from feast"
I flee all political views
In my 'No Idea How To Vote' shoes
I'm not sure where I stand
They're all so bloomin' bland
But one of them will win, so choose.
The cattle I find in my bed
Have deposited freshly-baked bread
And other stuff, too
Think this brown stuff is poo
But at least it's a pat on the head (forgive me)
The hottest of anchovy soup
Reminds me, frankly, of poop.
But cold kedgeree
Has class pedigree
At curing small babies of croup *
* This is not medical advice. The author is not a qualified physician.
Whilst wand'ring alone in The Weald
I made sure to keep my eyes peeled
For Red Riding Hood
Who's up to no good
With Nick Fury, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
When I met with my putative wife
I just could not envision the strife
Of tying the knot
With a 'she' who was not
So I dumped him and got a new life .. moving swiftly on
The diaries of Siegfried Sassoon
Are best played on the contra-bassoon
Or otherwise said
(Preferably, read)
By the light of a silvery moon
I'd rather a dinner of herbs
Than eat koljivo like the Serbs
For basil and thyme
Their taste so sublime
Can be found by most countryside kerbs
There's something suspicious in here
It looks like a worm in my beer
I'd best get it out
(Any forceps about?)
I think I've been sold a bum steer
The natural home of the worm
Is within the Medusian perm
It is annelid heaven
For 24/7
But not during Michaelmas Term
I'm told there is no antidote
To the bite of the Anglican Stoat
But the Mormon Vole's bite
Gives no need for fright
Dabbed with milk from a Methodist goat
The Kiss of the Womanly Spider
Smacks of the real venom inside her
Beware her octet
Or you will soon get
An oscular/eating collider phew. Next!
On a charabanc trip to the sea
We all took our own flask of tea/B>
We topped it with Rum<
And were thus overcome
And woke up in south Tennessee collider? I just met 'er!
The weather has called me away
Now I'm away, I may stay
Til I run out of socks
In my travelling box
'Cos I'm not gonna wash 'em, no way.
How on earth do you undo this knot?
Hard tightened and smeared with green snot,
Which ere long will harden
If left in the garden
The famed Gordian knot it is not
While eating a piece of fresh cod
Which I'd recently caught on my rod
A bone in the fish
That I'd placed in a dish
Had a foot and ten toes, ain’t that odd?
While drinking a rotten peach tea
I was gripped by a deep urge to pee
So much so that I
Let out a great cry:
"Look out, please make way for me!"
I love all the boils of your face
Each pustule, each zit, has its place
Your myriad diseases
And mucousy sneezes
Oh, how they do make my heart race! Well, at least I have tachycardia.
One's encounters with tropical sprue Continuing a medical theme....
One fervently hopes to be few
Typhoid and malaria
Can lay waste an area
There's naught worse than aqueous poo I'll get me coat
Hmmmm. Two 'poo's and a 'pee' in my last six postings. And my wife just bought me a 'wii' for my 40th. Wonder if there's a connection.
I have purchased an elephant's foot
I know not where it to put (ISP) She knows you well. You're a lucky man.
Or up with how much
Or whether and such
‘cause it’s hopping around, won’t stay put
A cuppa, a sit and a bun
When all the paperwork's done
Are you sure you meant "sit"?
Reflect for a bit
Meanwhile, I'll just pour a fresh one
Cash, dollar, loot, pennies, spondoolies
Alas, they're unknown to most coolies (pen) You will not tempt me into testicular references, but watch the 5th line. :-)
For them it's just barter Touché, Rosie ;o)
A note's a non-starter
But useful when shopping in Woollies
The time has arrived - celebrate!
I've worked out how to reincarnate!
I'll be back in a tick
As my new self, Old Nick
Now at last I'll take hold of my fate!
He locked us all into the shed
Looked us straight in the eye and then said:
"You all share one eye!"
"Is it Cyclops I spy?"
Our collective look killed - now he's dead
On slaying a mythical beast
The druids decided to feast
On roast gryphon wings
Or cherubims rings coat!
Or the tail of a ferret at least
Impractical thoughts such as mine
Deal with thou beside me and wine
For this combination
- salacious libation -
The finger writes; having writ, dines.
There's no wind but we sail anyway
So far, we have not left the bay.
Becalmed as we are
We can't go very far
And we'll be in the doldrums all day
Suddenly, there's a hurricane......

We battle 'gainst wind, wave and foam

In quest of a land to call "home"
In the teeth of the gale
We shall always prevail
Till we settle and nevermore roam
I have something between my two legs
So ladies, hang on to your eggs!
Lest fertilisation (Phil) You're dir'y.
Should lead to gestation
You'll look like this pair of beer-kegs?
A girl in a suit can look dapper
Especially one who's a tapper (i.e. tap dancer)
But a man in a skirt
Who chances to flirt
Will never pull more than a slapper. Rather surpising that this one has hung around for so long so I've taken the liberty.
My gosh, it's already July! thank you, Rosie.
I'm late, I really must fly!
Heathrow, here I come
I'll fly to Dum Dum [Calcutta's airport, that is]
I prefer the monsoon to the dry!
If you start, then you've started - that's good.
If you haven't, I wish that you would!
If you're already done
Or perhaps you've just come
To a halt; well, you did what you could.
While turning gold back to base metal
I watched the gold dust neatly settle
Into ingots of lead
So I thought, but instead
I made tea from hot water in t'kettle
Enough is enough is enough
Especially if one's feeling rough
Then enough can return
From which I discern
I'll undress and post this in the bough.
I now have a vision of Raak Hope you don't mind us having a little sport, old bean.
But only if viewed from the back
When viewed from the front an early candidate for Feedline of the Month
(I'll just have to be blunt)
There's something he appears to lack no offence...
Penelope feareth no man
(Please keep it clean, if you can)
For her feminine wiles
May bring forth many smiles
As she's known for her famous can-can
I want you to tell me the truth
Are you Valerie, Mabel or Ruth?
It's so hard to tell
Which is which gel Don'cha know
"My name's Harry, a gender bent youth"
I'm afflicted with six insect bites
I've been tasted by fleas, ticks and mites
'Tis the swamp that they seek
But havoc they wreak
Is something my hygiene invites. Sniffs armpit - poo.
The present is never the present
It's past for cooked geese or cooked pheasant
What the future beholds
Influenza and colds no doubt
Seize the day, for this morning, 'tis pleasant.
Well, Elvis is dead - but alive
At least amongst those who can jive
But why do they wear
So much lard in their hair?
When will Grecian 2000 arrive?
A pack of the very best plugs
Costs more than its weight in hard drugs
They're more galvanising
So it's not so surprising
That they come recommended by Suggs
Are these 'mobile phone' gadgets a fad?
And do i-Pods turn good children bad?
Or are they besotted
Besmeared and tight knotted
This Hi-Tech will drive us all mad.
I look in the mirror. Who's this?
It's me? Your taking the piss!
I was young looking smart
And had mastered the art
Of toilet bowl game "hit or miss"
I once met a nun from Milan
Who wanted to start her own clan
Both Sisters and Brothers
And uncertain "others"
Said "Dad's a McLeod, and me gran". So the whole thing just went down the pan.
A tenor who sang in Modena
Perhaps should have been a bit leaner
With angels he's singing
Adagio, bringing
[Don't quite see why Marc's perfectly reasonable line should stall things for more than a week. It's not like the word 'singing' lacks rhymes …]
Huge joy in his heav'nly arena
... [SM] quite - I'm assuming lack of lean-ness equates to death-ness [angels]. Moving swifterly on ...
I'm not sure if I'll find the time
Or the inspiration sublime
To take part in this game ;-)
In the hope of great fame
And escape from my life's grit and grime
But fame will not change me a jot
At least, I assume it will not
But in the limelight
I will get the rhyme right!
And the scansion, and grammar, and plot.
A young lad from Lytham St Annes
Had a penchant for stealing white vans
Which he'd drive at great speed
While puffing some weed
And swigging cheap beer from its cans
I've just spent a week on the tube
And all rails I have greased with fresh lube
I've cleaned all the tiles
Overhauled the turnstiles
And swept up all hairs of the pube
While studying the surface of Mars
I observed some deposits of tars
Which made me examine
The dictionary to find another word to rhyme
The famine that's caused by catarrhs Tut tut...
Re: Rhymes - I confess that 'famine' was the only word I could come up with. How to keep that in the context of Mars had me completely foxed, which was why I didn't post. I'm sure Chalky had something in mind...
Bob Marley was famous for jammin' for example...
Tho' some thought he always was hammin'
A funk rastafarin [IS,P, pen] True, but in context?
Cussin' and swearin' "This pit that I am in" would have been a perfectly acceptable line, I think. IS,P had it right: if you can't think of a rhyme, then let others have a try, at least until a couple of days have gone by.
He'd go out and sing somethin' damnin'
[Software] Thought I'd wait until the last one was complete before I made a comment ... all I can do is fully concur with IS,P's remark and pennylope/irach/Darren's contributions and, not least, CdM of the Wise Words. Patience, man!
Incredible sights can be seen
From the Moon, if your eyesight is keen
For instance, the earth
Is certainly worth
One pound 'cause it's made from cheese that is green
Whenever you think you are right
Beware if your wife is in sight
You'll probably find
She's hijacked your mind
And is raring to go for a fight
"I may be some time", quoth Oates
"Since Hall's out sowing wild oats"
"So while you may wait"
"Don't stay up too late"
"'cos at dawn you'll be milking the goats."
The gostak's distimmed all my doshes
I've markled the fanturic roshes
My satchbere has jored
(Conquintly misgoared!)
And I've murgle my clep with gooloshes
An ichthyophagous iguana
Attained a true state of nirvana
But the simple brown newt
Is not so astute
And struggles to manage his prana with apologies for hogging
The hog is a curious beast
Remarkably skilled on the piste. [Software] I hate to criticise again so soon, but really! Was 'gooloshes' the best rhyme you could come up with, when 'floshes', 'reswoshes', and even 'underphoshes' were all available. Any one of those would have allowed you to post a line that fit with the rest of the limerick, instead of that nonsense you put down. *shakes head*
... and what's more - your 'murgle' should have been 'murgled' if you really intended to stay true to the tense. :-)
The key to its skill
Oh dear - hr instead of br - schoolgirl error - which I will put right -
Tuj - The hog is a curious beast
CdM - Remarkably skilled on the piste
Chalky Its key to success
Is a long satin dress
With which its drag force is decreased
[Chalky] Not sure that you are right about that. I think murgle is an acceptable past participle in some dialects -- like 'I have stole' rather than 'I have stolen'. And from what I hear, that Channel Islands dialect can be pretty odd at times.
While attempting to extract a square root (Juxt) V. good. (CdM, Chalky) How much more dung are you going to fling at him? It's not as if he's f***** the game up.
My computer had need to reboot
Switch it off, switch it on [Rosie] Check your Spoof Detector batteries :o)
Then delete all the pr0n
Which takes hours - you may need to re-route
[CdM] A fair point. However, Ernie Murgle's tract: Semantic Correlates of Unaccusativity [1973] highlights the formal properties of such lexical derivations. 'Murgle' from the French 'murgler' has evolved into one of the few verbs that can have infinitive objects with agents or gerunds but with a difference in meaning which is left to the speaker/writer. Agree, though, that wibbly dialect can distort the shades of meaning.
(pen) Batteries OK - no spoofery detected. Are you sure yours don't need the recharger. :-)
Whenever you need to recharge [Rosie] If I didn't know you better I'd say you'd had a SOH bypass :-)
Set sail on the Rhone in a barge
Then dangle your toes
In the river that flows
Ça vous fera d'avantage. (Chalky) Yeah, awright missis. :-)
If it's fun and adventure you seek, [Rosie]*coughcoughbadsyntaxcough*
Climb to Kilimanjaro's cold peak
Then put on your skis
Connect to your Wii's
Then launch your surf-kite with a shriek....
When surfing the net please beware
Of sites which promote latex wear
Their corrupting allure
Will quickly assure
You that fetishism's not rare. (nights) I'm not surprised. What should it be, then? I did get the country right. Next time; Welsh.
Lain down by the fire one night, (Rosie) I'd have gone for "ça vous sera d'avantage" myself. Irritatingly though, I can't satisfactorily tell you why.
Was a phantom of my pure delight
'Twas wreathèd in vapours (nights) Not the syntax, then. Just one letter, in fact, but I bow to your greater knowledge.
And danced veilèd capers
Sure-ly a drink induced sight [Rosie/nights] personally I would have used soit, since there is a degree of uncertainty.
The sights you can see when you're drunk
Can put the naive in a funk
Pink elephants prancing
All hopes of recovery truly sunk [Software] Crikey, you're right, but then I was never any good at the subjunctive.
Of mice and of men let us sing
Grapes of wrath to the table let's bring
And Silence of the Lambs
I wouldn't normally do this, but given that this line doesn't really scan, seems unconnected to the previous lines (unless I'm missing something), and has apparently stalled the limerick, I suggest replacing it with
To Cannery Row
To get on with the show
East of Eden said Arthur, the King. Sorry guys, must have been hungry as I posted that line… Thought you were aiming at book titles containing animals or food and didn’t instantly see the connection with John Steinbeck’s eminent works. Completely agree with your remark about the scansion, here is a huge potential for improvements both regarding mine and other submissions I’m afraid…
It’s stated that Scansion is Science www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/99legacy/8-23-1999b.html
You can do it too, with this appliance!
Take note of the meter
And make your verse neater
Scansion police will check your compliance
The police are coming! Now run!
They'll gasp when they see what we've done
It took us a week
To construct this cheek
Now these cops will all ruin our fun
There was a posh lady from Purley
Who loved all things lacy and girly
Her knickers were found
Entwinéd around
Her ankles by a chap big and burly
Eat less and live long, so they say
And think, "what does Calista weigh"?
Give answer in ounces
(Clue)-(No part of her bounces)
She's this close to floating away
A grocer from old London town
Wore a beautiful cabbage-leaf gown
When it started to wilt
They revived it with silt
That Old Father Thames had brought down.
I met a mad widow from Worcester
Who thought she was General Cucestor [Jux] That's much more of a sod of a rhyme that you may have intended.
Though the vicar had Bleicester (SM) It is, unless northern vowels are invoked, which makes it much easier.
Delusions did feicester
No problem -- to them she was Ucester.
While pond'ring the properties of matter
I constructed a new kind of batter
Though crumbly and soft
It re-lines the loft 1 + 4 OK?
But it's low cal- it won't make you fatter
There was a young bard from Japan
Who was stung on the knee by a wasp
He cursed and screamed and hollered
And said, "Please take me to hosp."
A glimerick (or possibly a limerorm) by Simons Mith
Mm, hybrid poetical forms. The limeronnet: 7 couplets, alternately long and short limerick metre, with the long couplets all using the same rhyme. The sonnaiku: 14 syllables in 4 lines with ABBA rhyme. The limerestina: a cycle of five limericks plus a final couplet following rules too complicated to work out. The villanellerick, the Petrarchan tercet, the epic cinquain, ...
There once was a Samurai coward ...swiftly moving on...
Who worked for Prime Minister Howard
With his trusty katana
And half-ripe banana
His deeds with great praises were showered. Australian in a nutshell, really
Sonnaiku
Rare form of verse
Severely terse
Tough to do
Hard but fair
Keeping it short
Makes the verse taut
No hot air
Modern
Hiawatha
Made himself some mittens
Fur side inside, skin side outside
Cosy!
[SM] Bravo!
I wonder if we could try for a limeronnet? Lines 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, and 14 all have to rhyme.
A young man who went out on a date
With a girl from Connecticut State
Was charmèd to learn
She expected to earn
A stiff fee if he wanted to mate
[Raak] I think that <hr> means 'no'. You can have a go on your own if you like. We'll watch.
Makes a limerick that is too terse
Normal service shall soon be resumed
When that nice Edward Lear is exhumed
He spins in his grave
His soul we must save
Lest our wit end up dead and entombed.
Top limming all round :-)
There was an old man with no beard
Who said, "It is not, as I feared,
Malign alopecia
But a non-hirsute feature
Sleep-walking where livestock is sheared"
At Bristol, Temple Meads Station
I felt a quick stab of elation
As I ran to my train
I felt it again
But alas - it was mere constipation
The pain in my butt's getting worse
If it gets any worse I might curse
But with this senna pod
Flushing out my whole bod
I may stop being quite so perverse
Let's all sing in praise of the prune
Will the tenors please get in tune
For "Gloria-Il Pruno!"
...poetic license invoked (should actually be "la prugna secca" )
(Sung alla Frank Bruno)
Will sound more like Clair de Lune
While trying to put up a shelf
I just realised I was an elf
My tiny physique
Makes six feet of teak
Too heavy to put up myself.
I enjoyed that one :-)
I ordered a chair from IKEA
But instead got a case of Sangría
Those Swedes, they're so boozy
At despatch they're not choosy
Yet, boozeless, they tend to be angrier
My girlfriend from Stockholm, so cute
Played a gay saraband on the flute
I joined in on bass
Wearing taffeta lace
But the talent scout gave us the boot!
The orchestra struck up a tune
The lounge singer started to croon
As I looked at her eyes
To my great surprise
One was purple, the other maroon
While strolling one morning in June
I noticed the Man in the Moon
He looked down at me
Superciliously
'Cos I was walking along with a spoon
The good folk of Accrington, Lancs
Had tattoos of dogs on their shanks
The reason, they claimed,
They were artistic'ly maimed
Was because of the tattooist's pranks sorrysorrysorry
A problem with poodles and collies
Is their fear of Victorian follies
Which makes them pass water
Their legs then grow shorter
And they steal all the little kids' lollies.
If you stand on a hill in the rain
People will say you're insane
And the wetter you get
The longer you'll sit
And you'll never make that train. At least not to MC...
One day while defrosting the fridge
I found on the icecream, a midge
On the butter, a bug
Of green mould, a rug
And another head on London Bridge
Just eat when you're hungry and then,
Eat nowt till you're hungry again
With such a regime
Your rather large beam
Will go; you'll be svelte, and pull men.
There once was a man from Glasgow
Who when fishing, would let a caught bass go
His ichthyo mercy
To them that prefer sea You do better . . . .
Would give him a satisfied glow
It's good to return from the cold
I'm an ex-spy, and I'm getting old
My decoder ring
Just won't sing
[Red Wolf] oopsie ... 3 - yes a mere 3 syllables ... sorry chap - not quite the thing :-) Have another crack at it, eh?
Just ain't enough bling How's that, [Chalky]? Never have been wonderful limericks, ever since hearing "There once was a man from Nantuckett"...
It's plastic and steel, not gold. (RW) Just will not sing, or The bugger don't sing would have done. It's the rhythm.
If I had a heart, I would give u.s.a.
Some poor bugger a chance to live That seems to scan right...
My donated ticker
Sewn in someone who's sicker
Is useless - it leaks like a sieve Difficult rhyme
If your kidneys have suffered from drink
Which caused them to shrivel and shrink
Rent a Kidney Machine
It's sure to clean
Out the stuff that makes your breath stink. Not to say drop down dead. What a delightful subject.
Winter's a great time of year
Let's bring out some egg nog and beer!
Put wood on the fire
The flames will grow higher
And higher and higher an— oh dear...
The night when we grilled dear old Santa
We were drunk and exchanging weird banter
When we woke the next morn'
All our faces - forlorn
The only drink left was some Fanta
As an oldie you don't pay much tax
For old fogies the rules they relax
And you get in return
A free funeral urn
As you'll soon Requiescat In Pax Apols for the poor Latin, but my Poetic Licence is valid till the end of the month.
I came a long way from St Louis
And my spoggy* became very chewy *spoggy - noun: (slang) Chewing Gum
So I sang the Blues
Then discovered the news
There's more to spearmint than just gooey
American Football goes thus:
And most Brits it fair doth nonplus (pen) Heavens! You don't - masticate, do you?
A sport played in armour or armor?
With fans all a-clamor I'm sure you could dialect that to "clarmor"
Each "first down" they put up a fuss
His symptoms were carefully noted
And after the viewers had voted
To evict from the house
His flea-ridden mouse
'Een though it was sugar-coated
On a moonlit night down in Bude
I walked on the beach in the nude (oblig.)
walked ran (after seeing the 8-words game)
But the nippy sea air
Made my man-bits despair
But it did make my tits look quite rude. disgraceful
[Rosie] teehee :-)
A young lad from Mablethorpe, Lincs. (Chalky) Fancy a cold shower, m'dear?
Sprayed the whole of his body with Lynx
Though it didn't half sting
It concealed the ming
And attracted a sexy young minx
She would have had a whiff of chips-and-vinegar about her though.
I'm attempting a personal best
So I shall take off my vest
Then I'll ripple my pecs
If no one objects
That my tits are just drawn on my chest
Let's distance ourselves from this sleaze
And study how flowers and bees
Ensure that the species
Can produce ample faeces
Tut, tut, tut... some decorum, please!
With dignified elegant ease - I was going to post this as a last line but irach got there first , so it will have to do as a first line
I charm the birds from the trees
I then break their necks
Cook 'em Tex-Mex
And serve them with French fries and peas
When I began cooking a crow
I heated the coals to a glow
I placed it with care (CdM, S, B) Vicious - brilliant.
'Cos I wanted it rare
I like it like that, cooked just so - Thanks R
I really think I am a maven
Quite expert at sexing a raven
The dif'rence, you see,
Is the way that they pee I had to.
Plus the girls are Brazilian shaven
Trad - There was a young lady from Spain
Who loved to go out in the rain
She'd get soaked to the skin
'Cos her tee-shirt was thin drool....
I do wish she'd do it again If you can't beat 'em, join 'em
A hairy old codger from York
Assaulted a nun with a spork
Her re-tal-i-a-tion
Without hesitation
Was to pray for his balls on a fork
That saucy young widow from Slough
Made a solemn and celibate vow
That she'd ne'er again
Have sex. (Except when
Rancher Eason's bull mounted a cow)
Bring me the head of Alfredo Fantastic stuff on the Film Club page at the moment
Garcia, a Triumph Toledo [Bigs] Forcing ...
Some Kendal Mint Cake
A pack of Snopake®
And a ticket for something by Feydeau.
While skiing one day in Zermatt
I chanced on a leprechaun's pot
I solved the Last Problem of Fermat (Juxt) That doesn't come anywhere near a rhyme. i'm leaving mine in.
But writing quite large in [Rosie] Hmmm. I read Marc's line as While skiing one day in Zermatt (which I think puts the correct stress in the place name), not While skiing one day in Zermatt. I agree you need a pretty strong (perhaps American?) accent to rhyme it with 'pot', though.
So, come to think of it, I'll bifurcate:
But, sadly, inside / But writing quite large in
zermatt, the stressed syllable of which does indeed rhyme nicely with "pot" to a Yank.
A problem I spied/The edge of the margin
Made both my skis freeze on the spaht / Made me think of old Father Dermat

This is, apparently, the correct pronunciation - whatever accent one has :-)
In order to find my religion
I launched my best trained homing pigeon
She returned in a day
To show me the way
To Mecca. She erred by a smidgeon
[M, i, S and CdM] bravo :-)
While cleaning out my old chest freezer
To my horror, I found Julius Caesar
For a chap who was dead
He looked very well-fed
Though his stiffness so cold couldn’t please ‘er
Gather round, for I'll sing you a song!
"The Ballad of Fay and King Kong"
The note, maestro, please
Is the flattest of 'C's
Is the flattest of 'E's
Simons Mith - Could you gimme Big Ben for a bong?

According to my research, Big Ben was actually cast in E.
[Juxt] Hope you don't mind.

In order to sing out of tune
I borrowed a helium balloon
I then took a deep breath
Smoked a big hit of meth
Now I sound like Eccles the Goon
The trouble with playing E Flat [SM] no worries
Is it startles my neighbour's tomcat
When that beast starts to yowl
My dog starts to howl
So I clubbed them both with my bat
The problem with clubbing ones pet
Is rather large bills from the vet
Plus a call from the Plod
And the vengeance of God
And that's why I've not done it, yet
I think we should all have a party
Watson, let's not invite Moriarty
[irach] sorry to interrupt - but does your line scan - like really? Or is it just me that's having difficulty. I'm surprised - because you're usually spot-on in scansionland.
[Chalky] it scans for me: Watson, let's not invite Moriarty.
Mrs Hudson will strip
[Chalky] Sorry to offend. But Phil seems to feel the same way I did on the scansion when penning...er, posting the line.
Brut Champagne we will sip
[Phil, irach] - yesyesyes, I get the stress marks that Phil kindly html-ed - I just don't get the hurried Watson word. No offence taken, or indeed intended. Just curious.
Never realized she was so tarty
In Vienna they bake a nice tart
It's almost refined to an art
Delicious pastry
Seasoned tastily Japanese pronunciation invoked in desperation.
That's sold in the streets from a cart
In order to gain his affection
She covered herself in confection
[Two lims back] I too find it tricky to read limerick lines with two syllables before the first stress... It seems more natural to me to have one, as in dah DAH... as otherwise the first two have to be rushed together. For me. I guess that's why this thrives as a spoken form :)
And now, because I hate breaking up the bold stuff (though not enough not to do it...)
Chalky - In order to gain his affection
blamelewis - She covered herself in confection
With sweet chocolate bits
She covered her tits
Which sweetly caught his attention Tut, tut, Chalky
Surely the last line should be "Which gave him a stonking erection"?....coat!
There once was a gingerbread man
Who attempted to dance the can-can
But sadly the heat [Softers] I hope you're not tut-tutting the fourth line. That isn't me.
Melted both of his feet
So his pants now adorn Notre Dame
My blood-sugar level is low Is Chasty a newbie then? ;)
On a saccharine binge I must go
Which won't help at all Why is everyone shouting their name?
As it's sugar's f-all
Let's 'ave Anisette de Bordeaux...
There was a young man from Korea Can everyone hear me?
Who suffered Huntington's chorea
The symptoms, I'm told
Are sad to behold
In the head of Alfredo Garcia
My aunt suffers terrible pains
She has gout and god-awful chilbains
She sought herbal cures
For the aches she endures
But they failed, and the problem remains. 'Orrible, but chacun à son gout, I s'pose.
When Smaug caught a terrible cold
Argh, forgot the boldface. Let's try that again:
When Smaug caught a terrible cold
Middle Earth's fate didst unfold
Those horrible sneezes
Caused feculent breezes
And a greenhouse effect yet untold
Let's dance, you and I, in the buff.
Our shoes and our smiles is enough
As we shimmy and shake
Perhaps it will slake
The carnal needs of the rough
Let's toss off a rapid mazurka
Not easy when wearing a burka . . . . lucky old mazurka. . . .
Enshrouded in gloom
Amidst a simoom
And reading the Socialist Worker ...and they say multiculturalism doesn't work...
There once was a student from Kent
Whose member was upwardly bent
So he put it to use
Aiming the juice . . . .disgusting . . .
In a cup to be used after Lent Yuk!
I'm hoping to get a donation
Of blood for transubstantiation
But to rent a messiah
Would be courting hellfire
'Cos nowadays they're mostly Asian.
An imp who liked dwelling in boxes
Was discovered and eaten by foxes
But his devilish ghost
Could nonetheless boast
That their tails were bushier than ox's.
There's nothing but trash on the telly
As you watch it, your brain turns to jelly
So grasp the remote
Stretch open your throat
And pour more beer in your belly
Beware of the snake in the grass
It'll worm its way right up your arse
In contrast,the ant
Is no sycophant
And is proportionately stronger by mass
Tonight is the night, I am sure
I'll wine 'er and dine 'er and woo 'er
And should I succeed
A prophylactic I'll need
Which after I'll flush down the sewer
He stood ankle deep in the sewer
Wished the rats swarming round were much fewer
The stench, too, was vile
Yet one thing made him smile:
A young lady approached and he knew her
Her Maj's Inspector of Taxes
Gets many abusive faxes
But why should he care?
'Cause I don't. So there. - truly - I don't
As long as my bank account waxes.
The moon, oh she waxes and wanes
She beguiles those who love in dark lanes
When these moonstruck entwine
You can see the moon shine
By the light of far fusion-fueled flames. Try saying that three times quickly.
My washing line is a catenary
Supplying railway machinery
Hmmm... I thought I posted this comment before, but maybe I just previewed. Anyway, [SW], maybe I am missing something, but I simply cannot make sense of your line as a follow-up to Rosie's. And judging by the silence here, neither can anyone else...
The purple giraffe
Is good for a laugh
And greatly enhances the scenery. (CdM) Possibly, but he could be referring to those little chains that used to connect loose-coupled wagons. Anyway, I've broken all the rules by ending this one and nearly did so earlier, my first line being a bit too technical, perhaps.
The funniest limerick written
Is about a pair of blue mittens
Or, perhaps, just the one? irony invoked
With a hole in its thumb?
Gnawed on by a pair of blue kittens
The distance from here to Kentucky
May be leapt in one jump by the plucky
Just settle your stance,
Aim squarely for France
And you'll get there on time if you're lucky
There was a young man from Brazil [CdM, Rosie] actually, I was referring to one of these
Who decided to write his own will
"Mi Testamento", he began
To ten sides of foolscap it ran (Softers) I'd forgotten about those wires and so had CdM, possibly. I'm not into electrics, as you know. :-)
With scansion that made readers ill.
A crusty curmudgeon from Dover
Always puked when he heard "The Wild Rover"
'Cos his car was a Metro
Its styling so retro
With a failed MOT moreover
I drive a Mercedes-Benz well, not really
Old, with knocking big ends
Its top speed is thirty
Its air filter's dirty
But ya gotta keep up with the trends
An Escort estate is my steed
I've started to run it on mead
The fumes really stink
Like me, after drink
But it goes like a honey on speed
A Dutchman called Maurice van Hoote 2 syllabubs in Hoote.
Wore clogs that war werkelijk te groote
Zij kwetsen zijn voeten
Werstopft wurst van Hooten Flamish dialect warning!
Hij stempelde helemaal over het fruit Slightly dodgy flow warning!
Can we do a bifurcated Limerick that at least scans in two languages at once? If it rhymes in both languages too, then so much the better, but I reckon rhyming in one language would be enough.
Un loup-garou mangeait un chat - A werewolf was eating a cat
Qu'il a pris dans un sous-sol, à bas - Which he found in a sub-basement flat
Sounds like an idea for the Wretchedly Difficult Poetry game on Orange
Quand tout à coup - When quite suddenly
Il dit "Je m'en fous" - Said "Bovvered? Not me" Don't ask me to try one in Welsh. 5 lines out of 5 is a bad form, and my Dad would turn in his grave.:-)
"Est ce ce que je fais que cela!" - "This is what I do - and that's that !"
Beware of the were-armadillo!
For example, Michael Portillo
Was bit on the knee
As he went out to pee
On the range near the town, Amarillo
In Esher they often do say
That a moron is born every day btw, congrats to everyone in the bilingual limerick - bloody marvellous!
In Egham, meanwhile
High achievement's in style
Unless pissed, when they fall in the Wey.
Oi! Waiter! This soup's ruddy cold!
Your tip, my good man, is on hold
The gratuity's due
But it ain't for you
So hot up your pace - you've been told!
I'm sure there's a witty finish to this stalled* limerick - but as no-one has ventured one, you'll have to accept my dull offering.
*< musing > It's strange how some limericks simply run out of steam. In this instance, despite a lively start, lines 3 and 4 merely re-iterated line 2, offering no real development of the idea/story, leaving us with no where to go. < /musing >
So we need to develop the plot
Whether it thickens or not
So develop the tale
Or Chalky will wail
But make sure your scansion is hot!
That's a whole different kettle of fish
(That's fish in a pot, not a dish)
So boil up your cod
Freshly caught on a rod
I'm sure it will turn out delish
I say! Is that blood on your hand?
Or are you just overly tanned?
Your skin is so red
Is anyone dead?
Did you take out the man that you planned?
Hurry along now, nothing to see here.
Strategy is a technique
'Tho sometimes appearing oblique
Choosing tactics to use
will never excuse
Just guessing in moments of pique I fear that may have strayed into being too vague & abstract
If you're uncertain, just guess Opposite-limerick experiment
You're sure to be right, more or less
Thus, my prediction
turns out to be fiction [Juxtapose] Did you mean backwards, or something else?
Please tell me if No or if Yes?
I’m sure Easter Bunnies lay egg
Such bunnies, they say, have two leg
With chocolate ears
They don't so well hears
Poor things - they're simply the dreg.
In anger I say, "Son of gun!" Continuing with "deliberately bad grammar" theme
"You've stolen my last Hot Cross Bun!"
Your greed, it are frightful
Proceed, that's so spiteful
You bastard - Attila the Hun! Swiftly moving on wishing you all a nice April-fools day
There once was a plumber from Lodz careful.... :-)
Who worked as a conjuror's stodz
His rabbits, he found
Kept on going to ground
And they'd use the town's drains for refyodz
When selecting a verse's last word
From whimsy be not deterred
Nor sarcastic or trite
Rather witty than bright
And genius will be inferred
The Lim'rick's a wonderful verse
With a range from whimsical to terse
In which we display
Our skills every day
'Tho sometimes our scansion is worse
While Edward Lear turns in his grave
Say 'Bah' to the form - misbehave!
Au contraire, I insist
With perfection persist
To scansion and rhyme be a slave
The moon, as it waxes and wanes
Elicits weird urges in Danes
Their flesh gets too solid
Their conscience too stolid
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