Lymerics.

Let's begin a thread on our days in lymeric.

First, who remembers the rules of lymeric?

There once was a lady named Jade
Whose spelling was daily displayed.
Although it was tricky,
She tried "Limericky"
But dismally failed a "Pass" grade.

LIMERICKS have a defined rhythm and meter.
First, second and last lines should match in rhyme and meter.
Third and fourth lines should match in rhyme and meter.
The last line should also make some attempt to complete the story in a sensible and logical way.

There once was a man of Japan
Who wrote poems that no-one could scan
When told this was so
He replied "Yes, I know
But I always try to fit as many words into the last line as I possibly can"

Good Luck!...................I'll be watching!!

sorry, cant remember the rules, Just remember = There once was a man from nantucket......

There once was a man from Nantucket
Who liked to take baths in a bucket
When the water ran out
He would stand up and shout
Ah fuckit, Ah fuckit, Ah fuckit

And this describes your day, George?  Glad I didn't take that job in Jinan!

My two favorites come from the debate over Bishop Berkeley's philosophy. He "proved" the existence of God with an argument along roughly the following lines. Events cannot exist without an observer (If a tree falls in forest ...). However, the universe is somewhat predictable; if I look away from some object, then look back, it will probably still be there. So there must be a universal observer to provide the consistency. Hence God.

I've been told the two limericks were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, a notion I find enchanting, but I'm not sure that's true. Web search turned them up in a biography of Berkeley: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/berkeley/

The version they give is:

There was a young man who said God,
must find it exceedingly odd
when he finds that the tree
continues to be
when no one's about in the Quad.

The version I remember from my university days was:

A Cambridge student said God,
must think it exceedingly odd
to find that a tree
just ceases to be
when no one's about in the Quad.

The two versions have the same response:

Dear Sir, your astonishment's odd
I'm always about in the Quad
And that's why the tree
continues to be
Since observed by, yours faithfully, God

I rather liked Berkeley; his philosophy (or
at least the summary I got) struck me as
quirky, amusing, ...

Probably the best paper I wrote in unversity
stated from Berkeley. If the event cannot
exist without an observer, what about the
reverse? Can God exist without a universe?

In the beginning was the One. And He could
not cope with sensory deprivation, so He
started hallucinating. And it was Good.

This gets you pretty close to Lord Shiva
in his Nataraja form, creating everything
through dance.

Some writers oversimplify and call Shiva
the Lord of Destruction. He's closer to
Lord of Change. One of the upper hands
on a Nataraja statue has fire for
destruction; the other has a drum for
rythm, creation.

In the Beginning was the Beat?

My spelling has always been creative. 

My spelling has always been creative. 

That is one word for it.

My spelling is conformist - but my typing is creative.  However, in the classroom - I find no room for creative spelling or typing. 

There was a young teacher in China
Whose spelling could be finer
Her syntax
was intacts
but her essays went for a niner.

Ok - I got creative with 'intacts' - but poetic license sometimes prevails in extremis.

Absolutely terrible!! 9 beats in the first line, 7 in the second. FAIL!!

There was an old woman named Snitchy
who's desires still made her quite itchy
A Knight on a steed
is what she does need
Then perhaps she won't be so bitchy.

Hmmmm. Substitute "maybe" for "perhaps" and it will scan better. Not too bad!

Getting a limerick to rhyme
can take up a great deal of time
Am I just dim
Or is it a sin
To be clueless about the last line?

Werry good ND. We'll overlook the lack of rhyme in the penultimate line.

Hmmmm. Substitute "maybe" for "perhaps" and it will scan better. Not too bad!

You're right. Again. Sigh