On Mon, 8 Mar 2004, Titley, Nigel wrote:
Whilst agreeing that the limerick is possibly restricted in its metrical form, I cannot agree with the statement that it is restricted to humorous subjects, and hence at least one of the objections to its general use is fallacious.
$ whois -v limerick [...] The limerick class: The limerick object represents a humorous poem that has five lines and the rhyme scheme "aabba". [...] text Text of the limerick. Must be humorous, but not malicious or insulting. [...] Although IMHO the limerick _is_ considered a humorous poem in literature, the limerick object is not.
My solution to the lack of alternative metrical objects would simply be to redefine all poetry as limericks.
I think, this is a poor solution. Haikus (and Sonnets, etc. respectively) are no limericks and never will be. Do you want the whole world to laugh about the RIPE NCC for not knowing what a limerick is?
Also it has the merit of offering increased employment opportunities for poets, who would see their services called upon to rewrite all existing poetry in the limerick form.
Sometimes. Maybe. But not every haiku can be rewritten into a limerick. Sometimes a haiku can say more than a thousand words.
Nigel
Robert -- RSP-RIPE