# Song lyrics that include limericks **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 22, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678 "2011-08-22T16:57:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/1 "2011-08-22T16:57:33Z")
Posting the lyrics in another thread, I just noticed that the chorus in Tom Paxton’s Born on the Fourth of July is actually a limerick I was born on the fourth of July. No one more loyal than I When my country said so I was ready to go And I wish I’d been left there to die. Are there any others? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/2 "2011-08-22T17:00:30Z")
That’s a pretty broad definition of “limerick” – just meter and basic rhyme scheme. \*Hickory Dickory Dock \*would qualify, I think. The more common, stricter definition has rules like, “must begin with ‘There once was an X from Y’…” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/3 "2011-08-22T17:02:24Z")
The clock struck one The mouse ran down do not rhyme. Yeah, just looking for meter and rhyme. ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/4 "2011-08-22T17:03:25Z")
The Beastie Boys’ “Negotiation Limerick File” is all composed of limericks, if I recall. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/5 "2011-08-22T17:14:35Z")
“Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” by Flatt & Scruggs (and a lot of other people) kind of fits the pattern: Well I ain’t gonna work on the railroad, And I ain’t gonna work on the farm. Gonna lay around the shack Till the mail train comes back Rollin’ in my sweet baby’s arms. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/6 "2011-08-22T17:46:16Z")
Parts of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”. He’s noted it himself in interviews. _Now Paul is a real estate novelist Who never had time for a wife And he’s talkin’ with Davy, Who’s still in the Navy And probably will be for life_ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/7 "2011-08-22T19:33:52Z")
> [@](#): > > “Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” by Flatt & Scruggs (and a lot of other people) kind of fits the pattern: > > Well I ain’t gonna work on the railroad, > And I ain’t gonna work on the farm. > Gonna lay around the shack > Till the mail train comes back > Rollin’ in my sweet baby’s arms. “Railroad” and “farm” is about the worst slant rhyme I’ve ever heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/8 "2011-08-23T06:56:29Z")
The Beatles’ “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” is in perfect AABBA limerick form. I also seem to remember something about troop ships… ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/9 "2011-08-23T14:21:41Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Parts of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”. He’s noted it himself in interviews. > > _Now Paul is a real estate novelist > Who never had time for a wife > And he’s talkin’ with Davy, > Who’s still in the Navy > And probably will be for life_ Novelist do not rhyme with wife and life. A limerick has an AABBA rhyme scheme. If it were ABCCB, then Holly Jolly Christmas is a bunch of limericks. But it ain’t. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/10 "2011-08-23T20:25:53Z")
The dwarves’ song in _The Hobbit_ has the limerick rhyme scheme, though organized into four lines instead of five. _Far over Misty Mountains cold Through dungeons deep and caverns old We must away ere break of day To claim our long-forgotten gold_ ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/11 "2011-08-23T21:31:34Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > The more common, stricter definition has rules like, “must begin with ‘There once was an X from Y’…” I don’t know where you got your alleged definition, but “more common” hardly applies ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/12 "2011-08-23T21:44:01Z")
“ **The first line traditionally introduces a person and a place,** with the place appearing at the end of the first line and establishing the rhyme scheme for the second and fifth lines.” – from [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick_(poetry)) The form’s popularizer, Edward Lear, always followed this. As do all “joke” limericks (e.g., “There once was a man from Nantucket…”). Apparently, the word _limerick_ is “commonly” used more loosely now, so it turns out you may be right about that. I should have, it seems, used a different word, like “traditionally”. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-include-limericks/593678/13 "2011-12-20T18:01:19Z")
Bumping because of that holiday classic [The Annoying Drummer Boy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvQ1Hu22yoo)