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Friday, April 23, 2010

The Shapes of Sounds, part two

The limerick is one form of poetry that plays with what Dylan Thomas called the shapes of sounds and the colors of words. These three limericks are also delightful tongue-twisters.

BERTHA AND GERTIE

(The Brooklynese is easily translated into English.)

Boita and Goitie sat on de coib
Reading the Woild and de Joinal.
Said Boita to Goitie, “Der’s a woim in de doit.”
Said Goitie to Boita, “De woim don’t hoit,
But it soitenly looks infoinal!”

~ Anon.

A CANNER

A canner exceedingly canny,
One morning remarked to his granny,
“A canner can can
Anything that he can,
But a canner can’t can a can, can he?”

~ Anon.

A FLY AND A FLEA

A fly and a flea flew up in a flu.
Said the fly to the flea, “What shall we do?”
“Let’s fly,” said the flea.
“Let’s flee,” said the fly.
So they fluttered and flew up a flaw in the flue.

~ Anon.

1 comment:

Bob said...

Limericks have always been my favorite form of verse because they get the point across in as few words as possible. Brooklynese is not easy to master as a language, but to put it into literary form is fantastic.