Serious Limericks
I'm a morning person, springing out of bed at the crack of dawn with a song in my heart and a poem on my lips, which is a good thing because tomorrow, as part of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's Poetry Season, I'll be making my second appearance on Breakfast with Sara Mohr-Pietsch, following our triumph at the start of the poetry season when we got listeners to text and email lines to build a poem across the three hours of Breakfast; hundreds of people responded, in response to my opening line 'I pull the curtains wide and feel the morning on my face' and the resulting poem was, in the words of Robert McCrum in the Observer, 'not half bad'.
Tomorrow I reckon the challenge will be slightly harder, but I know that listeners will respond to it. During my first appearance on Breakfast, I mentioned in passing my fascination with the idea of the Serious Limerick, or Saderick; I'm interested in the idea of how you can write a limerick about a subject that has more depth than the antics of a young man from Leeds. It's a question of form over content: the form of the limerick makes you laugh, but if the subject was, say, the First World War, it would bring you up short and creative things would happen in your brain.
Listeners can send in complete serious limericks in advance of the programme, some of which I'll read out, but on the day I'll be giving a first line for people to respond to. It feels like a great addition to the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's Poetry Season, making poetry an interactive form, a form that belongs to everyone.
And if you want to hear the latest edition of Poetry Lab on The Verb, about describing objects with Paul Farley, the show is still available.
I'll see you on Wednesday morning. Remember: serious limericks!
Ian McMillan is a poet and presenter of Radio 3's The Verb.
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Comment number 1.
At 1st Jul 2009, NormanHadley wrote:I recently had a go at a complete course in ancient Greek philosophy using this eminently suitable medium. I got as far as this quintet.
Pythagoras
Pythagoras did more than square triangles
He shunned butter beans, pokers and bangles
He had Hippasos run through
Over the square root of two
Which incited irrational wrangles
Xeno
Xeno, being fast as a cheetah
Mocked a tortoise that claimed to be fleeter
But as far as he pranced
The beast halfway advanced
To a millionth part of a metre
Diogenes
Diogenes lived in a barrel
Liverpudlian friends warned him "Thar'll
"Make you ten times as cynical
"Oh and just one more thing an'all
"Put that thing back inside your apparel"
Aristotle
Aristotle thought women inferior
Wombs adrift in their moon-mad interior
For two thousand years since
Half the world was convinced
While the rest thought that Plato was cheerier
Socrates
Said Socrates once to a vendor
My need for your wares is but slender
Said the vendor, Come, come
Can't I offer you some
Leaves of hemlock to put in your blender?
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Comment number 2.
At 8th Jul 2009, RolandTaylor wrote:Hello Norman,
I must say that when we read your post in the studio last week we were all very excited/impressed and amazed. Ian McMillan was very complimentary!
Best wishes
Roland
Interactive Editor, Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 3.
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