I've heard it said that there's no such thing as a good clean limerick. I would have to disagree; I like clean limericks. But then, most of the best clean limericks aren't really limericks at all. To be more precise, my favorite limericks are mostly the ones that play with or comment on the limerick form, directly or indirectly: meta-limericks of one kind or another.<\/p>\r\n
Most ordinary limericks don't rhyme or scan nearly as well as I'd like; I figure if you're going to use a fairly strictly defined verse form (like limericks, haiku, double-dactyls, or sonnets) you ought to stick to the restrictions of that form unless you have a good reason not to (though admittedly limerick scansion is a good deal looser than that allowed for, say, double-dactyls). There are plenty of non-scanning limericks out there, especially in theatre games; I prefer the ones that either scan well or are quite aware that they don't, like this one (with no attribution I'm aware of):<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThere was a young bard of Japan
\r\nWhose limericks never would scan
\r\nWhen they said it was so,
\r\nHe replied, \"Yes, I know,
\r\nBut I always try to fit as many syllables into the last line as I possibly can.\"<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\u2014Anonymous<\/p>\r\n
And taking non-scansion in the opposite direction:<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThere once was a fellow from Xiangling
\r\nWhose greatest delight was in mangling
\r\nPoems. He would drop
\r\nWords between lines and lop
\r\nTheir ends off, and leave readers dang<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\u2014Elliott Moreton<\/p>\r\n
Playing with the rhyme scheme rather than the scansion, a renowned Victorian versifier wrote:<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\nLimerick in Blank Verse<\/h3>\r\n
There was an old man of St. Bees
\r\nWho was stung in the arm by a wasp.
\r\nWhen they asked, \"Does it hurt?\"
\r\nHe replied, \"No, it doesn't,
\r\nBut I'm sure glad it wasn't a hornet.\"<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\u2014Sir William S. Gilbert<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Even the number of lines is not a constant, as in this pair of anonymous items:<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\nThere was a young man from Peru
\r\nWhose limericks stopped at line two.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\nThere was a young man from Verdun.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n
And then, as Elliott Moreton and Carl Muckenhoupt have been known to remark, there's the one about the Emperor Nero.<\/p>\r\n
Some years back, Elliott and Carl produced The Oxford Book of Meta-Limericks<\/cite> (privately published, Oxford, MS, ca. 1989), now sadly out of print. The following limericks are quoted from that slim volume, by kind permission of the authors.<\/p>\r\n
More limericks with pieces missing:<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\nThere was a Soviet captain named XXXXXXXXXX
\r\nWho was a XXXXXXX technician in XXXXXXXXX.
\r\nHe was XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
\r\nFor failure to clear
\r\nLimericks with his superiors.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\u2014Elliott Moreton<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\nA lady whose name was McCord
\r\nOnce over this limerick pored
\r\nTo find the evil design
\r\nHidden in the last line\u2014
\r\nBut alas, she could not see the .<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\u2014Elliott Moreton<\/p>\r\n
(This one is an in-joke based on the Illuminatus!<\/cite> trilogy.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\nA cardiac patient named Fred
\r\nMade a limerick up in his head.
\r\nBut before he had time
\r\nTo write down the last line<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\u2014Elliott Moreton<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Some other self-referential limericks:<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThere was a young poet quite fine,
\r\nWhose limericks repeated a line.
\r\nThough this was redundant,
\r\nThough this was redundant,
\r\nHis limericks repeated a line.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\u2014Carl Muckenhoupt<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\nThis poem is copyright \u00a9
\r\nBy the author, 1983.
\r\nPrior written consent
\r\nIs required to present
\r\nIt on radio, film, or TV.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\u2014Elliott Moreton<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The idea of meta-limericks can be taken a step beyond limericks that comment on themselves, to self-referential items that claim to be limericks but (by the usual definition) aren't:<\/p>\r\n
\r\nOnce there was a guy from Atlanta whose limericks were indistinguishable from prose.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\u2014Elliott Moreton<\/p>\r\n\r\n
And finally, there are items that start out disguised as limericks but turn out not to be at all. These two don't even directly claim to be limericks, but they do bring up the question of their own limerick-nature:<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThere once was a limerick
\r\nBut this isn't it.
\r\nThis isn't a limerick;
\r\nIt isn't even a poem.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\u2014Carl Muckenhoupt<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\nA newspaper poet for Hearst
\r\nDeprived of his reason
\r\nBy uncontrolled sneezing
\r\nWas by phantasmal demons coerced
\r\nTo write all of his limericks reversed.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\u2014Elliott Moreton<\/p>\r\n
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