The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-02-05
PROSODY OF LIMERICK.
Reasons for Regarding 1t AS More In
teresting Than That of the Sonnet.

teresting Than That of the Sonnet.
1.-The limerick" said the old profess
sor. while not a stately vehicle of
poetical expression, is interesting to the
student of metrical construction.
You can read about limericks if you
will get the books of them and con-
corning them. Surely the limerick is
poetry. for didn't Browning write at
least one limerick
"The limerick, like the sonnet has
it's recognized forms. In the matter of
the arrangement of the rhyming lines
it is less elastic than the sonnet; in re-
spect of diversity of meter it is far
more elastic.
Shakespeare you will find all of them
nearly perfect in rhythmic adherence
to his favored model. The departures
of other writer's of sonnets from this
form are few.
THE limerick while it invariably
consists of five lines, as the sonnet al
ways consists of IA, affords it's au-
thorS an interesting choice of meters.
In the limerick the first, second and
fifth lines rhyme with one another, and
the third and fourth lines rhyme with
each other. But the lines vary metri-
cally with the varying moods and the
various topics of the authors, and
have found considerable amusement in
studying Urner1cKS WIFI sIlo View OF
attempting to designate them in ac-
cordance with rules of prosody.
THE limerick has a peculiar distinc-
ton in English verse. It is said that
five-sixths of the entire volume of Eng
fish poetry is written in some form of
iambic measure; but there probably
has never been composed an iambic
limerick. Id. .. "a
"One of the most entertaining func-
lions of limericks in the English tongue
is to display by means of the rhyming
words the vagaries of pronunciation or
of spelling, whichever you choose to
call them. Many of the limericks of
this order deal with proper names.
have in mind one which runs as fol-
lows:
There was once young fellow named
Taliaferro,
And his first name, like young Twists,
was Aliaferro:
He was hungry for more,
So he went to the store
And there purchased two buns and q
baliaferro.
1.-THE rules for determining quantity
are perhaps a little less definite In
English than they are IN Greek IN
Greek quantity rules meter; in English
verse accent or stress amounts to far
more than the quantity of syllab1es, al
though the most exact writer's of Eng
lish poetry endeavor to make quantity
and accent coincide so far as possible.
Writers of Iimericks, however, have not
striven for this nicely of construction,
and their scanning is by accent.
Applying this method of analysis,
the limerick quoted just now may be
scribed in the terms employed for de-
nominating Greek poetry as anapest1c.
The first, second and fifth lines are
anapestic tetrameter catalectic in syl-
labam, and the third and fourth lines
are anapestic dipodfes acatalectic. The
entire strophe is composed Of isochron-
GUS feet, barring the catalesticism in
the tetrametric lines.
Now, in the range of compositions
on the models of the nmericks, with
their many variations. perhaps every
one can be described with equal &C
curacy by the use of terms of prosody-
The form 1 have endeavored to de-
scribe is one frequently used to set
forth oddities of pronunciation by
means of rhyming words.
Another limerick to the same pur-
pose, but with q different scheme as
to prosody, is:
A poor little fellow named Vaughan
Was playing one day on the laughan,
When a whirlwind came nigh,
|, Took him UP in the skigh.
And none could tell where he had
gaughan.
"I recall another limerick of this
order that is almost, if not entirely
perfect in meter. 1t runs:
His name was Metheselah Cholmon-
deley,
And most things he did rather dolmo-
deley;
| But by dint of the rame
OF his family name
He married a girl that was col
| mondeley.
| I'm this strophe the first, second
and fifth lines are simple nonana-
crusistic amphibrachic tetrameter
acatalectic, and the intervening dipo-
| dies are plain nonanacrusistic anapes-
| tic dimeter acataletic
at is held by some prosodists that
the amphibrach is a redundant expe-
! dent of podometry in English verse
but 1 am inclined to favor It's recogni-
ton in limericks on the ground that
| 1t does away in many instances with
| troublesome anacruses or perpIexing
| catalecticisms.
From these examples the pro-
| fessor concluded, sit is possible to
perceive how broad a field for the
study of prosoddacal schemes is offered
| by single and unique form of Eng
| lish poetry.''-New York SUM-
|
/ There is nothing that stirs ones en-
! thusiasm like the discovery of ones
/ ideal. Every one has his ideal hidden
i away somewhere in his soul, but IL
/ few 1t Is given to find it. For most of
US this ideal is a tantalizing will-o'