Voilà Book

I grew up reading A Book of Nonsense, which left me with a permanent weakness for limericks. (It's possible that there were other side-effects too). Here's my favourite Lear:There was an old man of Thermopylae
Who never did anything properly
But they said, if you choose
To boil eggs in your shoes
You will never remain in Thermopylae!I'm afraid I kept thinking of this all the way through 300, which did rather take the edge off it. Though to be honest, the art of the limerick has advanced significantly since Lear's pioneering efforts - a major breakthrough was realising that the first and last lines didn't have to end with the same word. Some more favourites:There was a young fellow named Tate
Who dined with his girl, at 8.08
But I'd hate to relate
What that fellow named Tate
And his tête-à-tête ate at 8.08.

She frowned and called him Mr.
Because he boldly Kr.
And so in spite
That very night
That Mr. Kr. Sr.(Non-Brits may have trouble with the next example)There was a young curate from Salisbury
Whose manners were quite halisbury-scalisbury
Once morning in Hampshire
He took off his pampshire
Though his vicar had told him to walisburyLast and, in a certain sense, least, I only discovered the following sequence of minimalist limericks very recently. I'm surprised it isn't more famous! First:There was a young lady of Crewe
Whose limericks stopped at line twoHaving read that, you'll hopefully appreciate the logical continuation:There was a young man of VerdunAnd then, of course there's the third one. It appears that limerick technology is still advancing...