Author: Frederic Friedel
Date: 12:19:36 12/09/00
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On December 09, 2000 at 13:31:24, Dave Gomboc wrote:
>Does the following pass the Friedel limerick test?
>http://www.icdchess.com/forums/1/message.shtml?143620
Decide for yourself.
A Limerick is a humorous, often nonsensical verse form. The structure is
strictly prescribed. Of the five lines the first, second and fifth rhyme, as do
lines three and four. Lines one, two, and five contain three metrical feet;
lines three and four contain two metrical feet. (In technical terms: it must
consist of five anapestic lines with the rhyme scheme aabba. The first, second,
and fifth lines are trimeter, while the third and fourth are dimeter.)
The three longer lines ideally contain eight syllables, lines four and five
contain five syllables. Each may have one or two extra syllables, but this is a
bit tricky (see example below).
The meter is critically important and defines the sequence of stressed and
unstressed syllables. The following is the prescribed meter, where "-" is an
unstressed and "x" a stressed syllable. The syllable in brackets is optional.
- x - - x - - x (-)
- x - - x - - x (-)
- x - - x (-)
- x - - x (-)
- x - - x - - x (-)
In plain language:
da dam-di-di-dam-di-di-dam(-da)
da dam-di-di-dam-di-di-dam(-da)
da dam-di-di-dam
da dam-di-di-dam
da dam-di-di-dam-di-di-dam(-da)
Here are a few perfect examples:
There was a young lady from Balm,
who said, "Why the sea is so calm!
I shall swim for a lark."
She encountered a shark.
Let us now sing the 90th Psalm.
There was a young lady named Bright,
Who travelled much faster than light.
She set out one day
in a relative way,
and returned on the previous night.
"There's a train at 4:04," said Miss Jenny,
"Four tickets I'll take - have you any?"
Said the man at the door
"Not four for four four,
for four for four four is too many."
One can also fill out the syllables artistically:
There was a young fellow named Amour
Who had a most terrible stammer
"The b-bane of my life,"
he said, "is my wife.
"D-d-d-d-d-d-damn her."
Note that in the last two examples there is an additional syllable in line four
("Said man at the door" and "The bane of my life" would be more precise). But
this is acceptable. In the first case it is necessary, in the second it is used
humorously. Generally it is better to add one or two syllables to the end of the
line. Here's an example:
The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean -
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
So the scheme is:
da dam-di-di-dam-di-di-dam(-di-di)
The LIM'rick packs LAUGHS anaTOMical
In the following the rule is broken facetiously:
There was a young poet of Japan
Whose verses just never would scan.
When someone asked why,
He'd slowly reply,
"Perhaps it's because I always try to get as many syllables in the last line as
I possibly can."
--------------------
Okay, now to your composition:
A patzer installed their ChessBase
but couldn't keep up with the pace
Constantly smashed to bits
by the engine named Fritz
they clicked on the option "erase"!
The dimeter third and fourth lines definitely need touching up, the rest is
okay, except for "a patzer installs _their_ (?) ChessBase"; and you are forcing
people to the stress it chessBASE.
Producing a good limerick requires hours, days or sometimes even weeks of
painful effort (remember, it must also be funny). It is like a chess study: you
have a good idea, then you spend all your times getting rid of unnecessary
pieces, cooks, duals, etc.
If you are really interested here are some useful links:
Lots of very obscene but metrically good limericks:
http://www.pagebuild.com/limerick/
All limericks that have ever been composed (I think):
http://bruichladdich.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/OldLimericksDir/Limericks.html
An automatic alien limerick generator:
http://www.herald.co.uk/~mel/limerick.html
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