Hi, Roy! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

[adding analysis of the rhythm]

- / - - / - - /

A tutor who tooted the flute

- - / - - / - - /

Tried to tutor two tooters to flute

- - / - - / -

Said the two to the tutor

- - / - - /

"Is it tougher to too(t)

- - / - - / - - /

Or to tutor two tooters to toot?"

I've never seen nor heard the limerick before this,
so I'm not sure of what is correct.

Dallas had heard it before... but possibly not quite the same way I heard it or the same way he found it recorded in writing by someone else. The very nature of stuff which has been transmitted orally for generations is that folks from the other side of the tracks (or the other side of the mountains or the other side of the 49th parallel or the other side of the pond) may be used to a slightly different version. The example I cited from memory below varies by only a few words from the one in the GAGE CANADIAN DICTIONARY, published in Toronto. The rhythm is the same & the general idea is the same. I won't lose sleep trying to find the definitive version in such cases because I'm not sure there is one & I don't feel others have to be wrong so I can be right.... ;-)

I would probably change the limerick to something like;

"Is it tougher to toot the flute
Or to tutor two tooters to toot?"

Hmm... I wouldn't because it breaks the customary rhythmic pattern, although I think "flute" does improve the lame repetition of "toot" at the end of two-three other lines. Few people would consider such folk traditions on a par with Shakespeare's works, e.g. Various sources apparently agree, however, that the "/--" unit or dactylic foot is one of the identifying characteristics of limericks & that it is important to understand how often the pattern may be repeated in which lines. The addition of unstressed syllables here & there... as I see in Dallas's example... is tolerated in various other forms of poetry. In limericks the substitution of xxx for another word which scans the same way is routine. OTOH, if we change too much we no longer have a limerick.... :-)


Here's another example. It doesn't have the internal rhyme... i.e. the rhyme within a line... which you added to the previous one, but it doesn't really need it because there is more variety WRT the rhyming words:

- / - - / - - /
There was a young lady from Lynn

- / - - / - - /
Who was so remarkably thin

- / - - /
That when she essayed

- / - - /
To drink lemonade

- / - - / - - /
She slipped through the straw and fell in.

The best one I ever saw was on a stage with eight young
ladies nearly nude. They were aligned to represent the
William Tell Overture with the first, third and fifth
ladies covering their breasts and the rest facing away
from the viewer.

Hang on while I do the math... 00 | 00 | 00 |||. Okay, the cavalry charge. That part is in 2/4 or 4/4 depending on which version you're reading. Others may identify with it as the Lone Ranger theme (giddyup giddyup) or hear "dit dit dah" in code. Either way, not all syllables are created equal there. To me limericks sound like a waltz in 3/4... BOOM chick chick BOOM chick chick THAT'S how it GOES, with each note occupying the same length of time. But I'm inclined to think the presentation was meant to appeal to folks whose learning style is more visual than auditory & who enjoy the frontal view.... [chuckle].




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)