Serious limericks?

November 2, 2023 1:34 PM

Any examples you can think of?

One I vaguely remember -- maybe by Tom Paulin? -- is about a solitary bench in a park. The triple rhyme words are: park, dark, indistinguishable mark.

Any ideas? Or any serious limericks.

posted by maddalo to Writing & Language (15 answers total)

These are somewhat more serious than the examples I usually see?
posted by cider at 1:52 PM on November 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form may be of interest.
posted by offog at 2:15 PM on November 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Isaac Asimov wrote limericks on the first few books of the Iliad (which appeared in some of the Black Widowers stories), but he never completed the whole poem.

Agamemnon the top ranking Greek
To Achilles in anger did speak
They argued a lot
Agamemnon grew hot
And Achilles stamped off in a pique
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 2:15 PM on November 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

The Earl of Limerick, no less, wrote one as his manifesto for election to the House of Lords in 2015. It is whimsical but written for a serious purpose, if that counts:

The Upper House knows none so queer
A creature as the Seatless Peer.
Flamingo-like he stands all day
With no support to hold his sway.
And waits with covert eagerness
For ninety-two to be one less.
Then on to hustings he must pace
Once more to plead his special case.
Noble Lordships, spare a thought
For one so vertically distraught,
And from your seats so well entrenched,
Please vote that mine may be embenched.

The background to this is that by a strange quirk, the only lords who are elected in the otherwise unelected House of Lords in the UK are the remaining pool of hereditary peers - those who still inherit their titles from their fathers. 92 of them get to sit in the Lords, and when one dies or steps down, there is an election in which the electorate is only the hereditary peers. This was a compromise hammered out in the first phase of Tony Blair’s plans to reform the House of Lords, rather than abolishing the hereditary peers altogether. It no doubt would have been removed in the second phase but Blair lost his nerve and didn’t push it further reforms forward.

(The Earl of Limerick is still yet to be elected).
posted by greycap at 2:51 PM on November 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

There once was a woman called Bright
Who could travel at the speed of light
She set one day
In a relative way
And returned the previous night
posted by TheRaven at 3:03 PM on November 2, 2023

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me has a Listener Limerick Challenge segment every week. The caller completes the last word or phrase of three limericks related to a recent news story. Here are the limericks from last week's episode (Oct 28):

Those of gray or brown fur is on show
There's a bright neon rainbow below
In lairs and in caves, there could be all-night raves
Under black light, most mammals will... glow.

In my yard, grass and weeds are real deep.
And for mowers, the incline's too steep.
So I'm joining the craze, paying ovines to graze.
For my lawn care, I've hired some... sheep.

Changing bedding does not take much skill, no.
Sheets puff up with a soft, downy billow.
And where I rest my head, there's a thump more like lead.
I still cling to my old yellow... pillow.
posted by bones to dark emeralds at 3:10 PM on November 2, 2023

Our very own Quidnunc Kid once posted the Divine Comedy here in Limerick form. His profile page used to have the Lord of the Rings in Limerick form, but not enough people voted #1 so it was taken down.

Whether these are actually "serious" is an exercise for the reader.
posted by LionIndex at 3:25 PM on November 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

There was a young man of St. Bees
Who was stung in the arm by a wasp.
When asked, "Does it hurt?"
He replied, "No, it doesn’t,
I’m so glad it wasn’t a hornet."
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:02 PM on November 2, 2023 [6 favorites]

I wrote this in elementary school, as part of a Valentine's Day project of some sort:

Valentine was a real saint
An early Christian preacher quaint.
But the Romans didn't like him
And so they went and spiked him.
The result, friends, may cause you to faint.
posted by lhauser at 5:29 PM on November 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Origins of Medical Words Written by Dr. Rohin Francis, Interventional Cardiologist, on his YouTube Channel Medlife Crisis. His other video called "Vitamins" is also written in verse if you find the first one interesting.
posted by effluvia at 8:12 PM on November 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Not sure this counts as serious enough ,but there is a limerick version of T S Eliot's "The Waste Land" (a very serious poem) by Wendy Cope;


The Waste Land: Five Limericks

I

In April one seldom feels cheerful;
Dry stones, sun and dust make me fearful;
Clairvoyantes distress me,
Commuters depress me--
Met Stetson and gave him an earful.

II

She sat on a mighty fine chair,
Sparks flew as she tidied her hair;
She asks many questions,
I make few suggestions--
Bad as Albert and Lil--what a pair!

III

The Thames runs, bones rattle, rats creep;
Tiresias fancies a peep--
A typist is laid,
A record is played--
Wei la la. After this it gets deep.

IV

A Phoenician named Phlebas forgot
About birds and his business--the lot,
Which is no surprise,
Since he'd met his demise
And been left in the ocean to rot.

V.

No water. Dry rocks and dry throats,
Then thunder, a shower of quotes
From the Sanskrit and Dante.
Da. Damyata. Shantih.
I hope you'll make sense of the notes.
posted by Fuchsoid at 8:17 PM on November 2, 2023 [10 favorites]

Oh, and

There once was a man who said "Damn
it s bourne upon me that I am
just a being who moves in predestinate grooves
I'm not even a bus, I'm a tram."

Not sure who this is frombut probably early C20, because it has a tram in it.
posted by Fuchsoid at 8:20 PM on November 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

There is a collection tied to Massey College below this photo - mostly not serious.
posted by sindark at 9:02 PM on November 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Serious enough to cause existential crisis:

There once was a man who said, "Damn,
It has borne in upon me I am
But a creature that moves
In predestinate grooves;
I'm not even a bus, I'm a tram!"
posted by sindark at 9:03 PM on November 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

The lyrics to the Billy Joel song Piano Man are mostly in limerick form:

Now John at the bar is a friend of mine
He gets me my drinks for free
And he's quick with a joke
or to light up your smoke
But there's some place that he'd rather be
posted by rollick at 12:53 AM on November 4, 2023 [3 favorites]