Here are the great submissions for Glasgow. By the way, we loved Edinburgh - though that word would have been a disaster to rhyme, particularly across cultures. Glasgow was hard enough!

Now these weren't that easy - so please get going and vote (even if you didn't write one)!

Question:
1
Once a knight of the realm up in Glasgow
Heard the Vikings were now in the pass. "Go
Don your stiff armor plate.'
"Found the bottoms but, mate,
Just where in the hell'd my cuirass go?"

2
A buff would-be "booze, sex, and jazz" beau
Is cursed: he's a Scotsman (from Glasgow)
The girls stay away--
He rarely can pay,
And won't spend a dime when he HAS dough

3
There's a town where the men of high class go.
It's in Scotland and folks call it Glasgow.
There men of good breeding
Indulge in wild seeding,
Since Glasgow's where all the best ass go.

4
When I opened a club up in Glasgow
They all came to hear that wild jazz go
But their love of it waned
As it turned rather strained
They said, “Shame to see all that pizzazz go.”

5
A tightwad no-tipper from Glasgow
Had ordered an agua con gaz, so
The put-upon waiter,
In no mood to cater,
Secreted therein some tabasco.

6
A board-game inventor from Glasgow
Was told by Mattel his game has no
Chance to succeed
But he disagreed,
And had more "Sexcess" down at Hasbro.

Note: "Sexcess" is the name of his game.

7
A Scot in a pub up in Glasgow
Would not let his cute picked-up lass go.
A Catholic, she missed
The overall gist:
Trilled, 'Let's us then off to late mass go!'

8
There once was a lad from old Glasgow,
Who made his young beautiful lass go
To bed, and they screwed
And screwed 'til she'd brood,
"I dasn't to church or to mass go!"

Choices:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

 

I am confused. There are several limericks here whose final rhyme for lines 1, 2 & 5 is -gow, go and go. To my way of thinking I have to discount them all, because they are all homophones. The "go" at the end of Glasgow is surely not like a schwa, and is the syllable in the place name with the greater emphasis and therefore the one that has to be rhymed. Rhyming with Glas- (whether you think it rhymes with Jazz, as I do, or lass as some clearly do), should just be a bonus if you can do that too. Or am I missing something?

Regional accents are the problem.

Some hear the name as GLASSgo,
While others hear it as GLAZZgow,
And any number of variatioons --

All of which are acceptable since no one accent is accepted as best.

quote:

The "go" at the end of Glasgow is surely not like a schwa, and is the syllable in the place name with the greater emphasis and therefore the one that has to be rhymed.

The stress is usually on the first syllable (see here in the original thread).

quote:

To my way of thinking I have to discount them all, because they are all homophones. The "go" at the end of Glasgow is surely not like a schwa, and is the syllable in the place name with the greater emphasis and therefore the one that has to be rhymed. Rhyming with Glas- (whether you think it rhymes with Jazz, as I do, or lass as some clearly do), should just be a bonus if you can do that too. Or am I missing something?

Yes. You are missing varying accents. It's up to you if you don't want to choose a limerick that matches the way you pronounce the word. Vote for yours in that case. As for the stress of the syllables, as arnie says, we in the U.S. stress the first syllable as well. Therefore, for us they are not homophones.

How about some more votes? We've only 4 at this point.

Number 2 is running strong!

unstressed final syllables can either rhyme or be the same
as GLASgow is stressed o the first syllable that's the one that can't be a homophone

For me "has go" is a rhyme for "Glasgow" but "has no" isn't.

For me a good rhyme has the last stressed syllable rhmed b\and all subsequent und\stressed ones indenticle.

Apparently the opposite of how Greg sees it.

Thanks Bob,

I understand exactly what you are saying and do not disagree. My problem is that sometimes I can't really determine which is last stressed syllable. In fact to my ear Glas- and -go are equally stressed, so I figured since -go is just as stressed as Glas-, then it is therefore the last stressed syllable. There's no way I can say GO that makes it sound short and unstressed.

So then I started trying to think of a similar situation and "ballet" popped into my head. But I wouldn't think of rhyming that with anything other than the likes of valet and chalet, so the bottom line then is that I clearly haven't got a bloody clue about all this, so forget I ever mentioned it.

As a consequence I will have a vote soon and won't discount any of them on my original ill-founded theory.

Ah well. Just vote with the one that best fits your ear. These are not meant to be perfect, as they are on OEDILF.

I agree with voting, but please keep up the discussions. I, for one, am learning from them.

As to the discussion; to me, GLASgow is a definite stress on the first syllable, and ballet is a stronger stress on the second syllable, (but I think I may have heard it stressed on the first before.)

What I don't quite understand is why the "go"-sound has to be identical. It seems to me that if one rhymed both the stressed syllable and the following one it rhymes well. Judging by the current voting it seems that several people think so too. Is this some kind of hard-and-fast rule, or just something that sounds right to the ear?

quote:

Is this some kind of hard-and-fast rule, or just something that sounds right to the ear?

Always follow the rules until you know enough about them to be able to break them in a manner the reader will not find offensive.

So...it would be a "rule of thumb"?

quote:

So...it would be a "rule of thumb"?

More like a rule of style.

rule of thumb:

quote:

... good rhyme has the last stressed syllable rhmed b\and all subsequent und\stressed ones indenticle.

rule of style:

quote:

Always follow the rules until you know enough about them to be able to break them in a manner the reader will not find offensive.

?

To me, either way goes. I did not vote in this game, but I'd vote for either. I always learned that the rhyme is for the stressed syllable so there is no homophone if the second syllable is the same. Perhaps #2 is ahead for different reasons as its a lovely limerick. However, some (and I believe this would be the case on OEDILF) would not go with the HAS dough rhyme as the stress isn't natural.

For me, in the context of that particular rhyme, emphasis on the word "has" was perfectly natural, plus the author was stressing the word by capitalizing it.

Of course I am new to the limerick game, and am still learning.

You are a darned good newbie!

Any more votes? I'll wait a day or so, and then I'll post the winner!

Well, it looks like we have a winner! #2 is the big winner - Congratulations to Bethree! Well deserved, with three submissions!

The other limericks were:

#1 - Proof's - you had to love "pass go"
#3 - Proof's - and with a vote!
#4 - Bob's - and with a vote!
#5 - Bethree's - no votes, but I loved "tabasco!"
#6 - Greg's - no votes, but I loved "Hasbro!"
#7 - Bethree's again - and with a vote!
#8 - Nobody liked mine, but I did!

Take it away, Bethree!

I was stuffed full of beans while in Glasgow
And I felt bilious masses of gas grow.
So I said to my date,
"Leave at once. Do not wait!
You won't breathe for a week should this gas go."

Thanks all. As I PM'd to Kalleh, you never know til the votes are in. I'd thought my 'tabasco' was unbeatable (0 votes)-- submitted it because 1st try (winner) seemed contrived w/tired ethnic stereo. Personally I'm a Proof fan this round-- 'cuirass' is always cool, but I was wowed by the double-rhyme #3's last line.

New game up later this eve