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Anderson, John wrote:
> Actually, extra processing to test rhyming, syllabification and so forth
> are redundant because limericks are not actually required to rhyme, and
> even the short and long apply a constraint that is not required by the
> genre.
The man from Japan, like the man from Peru, the lass from Verdun,
the Emperor Nero, and the young fellow from Beeze (all of who have
already appeared in this thread), belong not to limericks but to
meta-limericks, whose appeal depends on their schema-violating nature.
Without rhyme, syllabication, and so forth, we would end up with
lumpericks like:
Turnover varies enormously
From one organization to another.
We hear of companies
With a ten percent turnover,
And others in the same business with a hundred percent or higher.
--De Marco & Lister, _Peopleware_, ch. 16
Which is actually rather better than I thought it was going to be.
--
Not to perambulate || John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>
the corridors || http://www.reutershealth.com
during the hours of repose || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
in the boots of ascension. \\ Sign in Austrian ski-resort hotel
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