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Out on a Limerick
Condensed from the book
BENNETT CERF
CCORDING to Bennett Cerf, the origin of the limerick form is
shrouded in obscurity. But the man who made the limerick
A
universally popular was Edward Lear, who published a Book
of Nonsense in London in 1846. The vogue it started spread
more quickly than anagrams and bustles.
Over the years the comparatively simple, innocuous limericks which
Lear originated have undergone great refinement - if that is the word-in
form. Atrocious puns, abbreviations, trick spellings and bawdiness charac-
terize today's entries. Bennett Cerf, no mean perpetrator of pun-filled
limericks himself, has done much to keep the form alive by printing nu-
merous bêtes-noires in his columns and encouraging contributions from
readers. Following are some selections from his newest collection. Some
are classics, some of recent vintage.
A damsel at Vassar named Breeze,
There was a young lady from Trent
Weighed down with B.Lit.'s and D.D.'s,
Whose TV antenna got bent.
Collapsed from the strain.
The neighbors went crazy:
Said her doctor, "It's plain
Their screens all got hazy
You are killing yourself-by degrees."
For instead of receiving, she sent!
The ladies inhabiting Venus
- John Etheridge
Have signaled us saying they've seen us.
They add, "There's a yen here-
For getting some men here-
And nothing but space is between us."
- Al Graham
God's plan made a hopeful beginning
But man spoiled his chances by sinning.
We trust that the story
Will end in God's glory
But, at present, the other side's winning.
"Out on a Limerick," copyright 1960 by Bennett Cerf, is published at $2.95 by
23
Harper & Brothers, 49 E. 33 St., New York 16, N. Y.
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