As stofsky noted in this thread, Shakespeare’s great limericks are often forgotten by those who wish to present him as an author of high literature. What’s your favorite Shakespearean limerick? Mine is:
My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun,
And many would say she has quite a large bum.
Her voice is quite fragile,
And she’s not very agile,
But to me she is second to none!
To be or not, that is the query
Quoth the Dane who’s so glum and so dreary.
Though he curses the fates,
he just waits and he waits.
That he’s hot for his mom is one theory.
Countrymen, Romans and Friends!
Caesar’s met the cruelest of ends.
He was stabbed in the back
(a political act).
Twas good or twas bad? That depends.
Uh, I think you guys should look up the definition of a limerick.
Limerick: a light or humorous verse form of 5 chiefly anapestic verses of which lines 1, 2, and 5 are of 3 feet and lines 3 and 4 are of 2 feet with a rhyme scheme of aabba
Not quite sure what you’re talking about. I may have an extra unaccented syllable here and there, but my metrical feet are fine, and if you’re going to be that much of a stickler than “There once was a man from Nantucket” doesn’t even count.
Sheesh!
Wow, someone else started a thread because of me. A nice one, that is. I’ll have to dig out my Bill and come up with something for it, but it’s too damned early right now.
I think that RChuck’s point is that limericks should be dirty in their purest form.
Limerick 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Taketh away the tie that binds
For bondage is neater
If it makes a hard peter
Just remember to close up the blinds
Fair enough:
What light through yon window breaketh?
Tis the jailbait for whom my heart acheth.
So I’ll pull out my boner
and ask Miss Verona
“Would Juliet me make your quim quaketh?”