Poor old Fiddle!

kw: poems, ditties

Here is my all-time favorite Limerick, as told by my mother when I was very small:

A Divinity student named Fiddle
Refused to accept his degree.
 "Not I", said the man,
 "It's enough to be Fiddle,
Without being Fiddle, D.D. !"

Even though it breaks the accepted rhyming pattern, it is recognizably a Limerick. Of possibly even more aged lineage, my next-most favorite probably arose shortly after 1905:

A speedy young lady named Bright
Could travel much faster than light.
 She took off one day
 In a Relative way
And came back the preceding night.

Finally, as a child I found this delightfully disgusting:

A gentleman dining at Crewe
Found quite a large mouse in his stew.
 Said the waiter, "Don't shout,
 And don't wave it about,
Or the rest will be wanting one, too!"

I do like to credit sources, but the authorship of these seems to have vanished into the mists of time. While Limericks are "supposed" to be lusciously lascivious, I really prefer the clean ones.