Thursday, March 28, 2024 Limber Limericks

I mentioned last week that I’m reading through a poetry collection. To be specific, it’s a book called “The Golden Treasury of Poetry,” and I’ve had such a long association with it that I’ve inserted into my mind a false memory of bringing it into our marriage. But no, it was a book from my husband’s childhood. It strikes a chord with me because of the illustrations by Joan Walsh Anglund. She was one of my Mom’s favorite book illustrators and I grew up in a bedroom that had a display of Joan Walsh Anglund illustrations that went all the way across one of the walls. Wish I had a photo of that.

Usually poetry collections are a resource that you pick up now and again, and that’s how we used this book during the homeschool years. I have run across a few poems in this one that some of my children memorized and recited – oh, the memories! “Tyger, Tyger, burning bright…,” “The Akond of Swat,” “The Owl Critic,” and a hilarious one called “The Twins,” that I just HAD to have my twins memorize and recite for one of our homeschool recitals.

Last year (July 1, to be exact), I decided to read through the book, cover to cover. It’s been such an enjoyable experience! This week, I’ve been reading through some of the limericks. I’ll share a few with you and finish up with one of my own.

A girl who weighed many an oz.
Used language I dared not pronoz.
For a fellow unkind
Pulled her chair out behind
Just to see (so he said) if she’d boz.

And here’s another one that relies on you pronouncing the whole word that’s been abbreviated (as if it rhymes with Michigan):

There’s a girl out in Ann Arbor, Mich.,
To meet whom I never would wich.,
She’d eat up ice cream
Till with colic she’d scream,
Then order another big dich.

Here’s a two-stanza one:

The daughter of the farrier
Could find no one to marry her,
Because she said
She would not wed
A man who could not carry her.

The foolish girl was wrong enough,
And had to wait quite long enough;
For as she sat
She grew so fat
That nobody was strong enough!

And here’s one that I’m writing even as I type, so don’t expect the heights of cleverness that the previous ones exemplified:

I met a bog lemming named Saul,
Whose diet was painfully small
Just grasses and seeds
Met all of his needs
It’s a wonder he grew up at all!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

There’s a post that I need to delete,
And it’s right here under my feet
I’ll wait ‘til the morning
To give it fair warning
Before kicking it out on the street.