1. When Geoffrey was born in Cheraw,
In South Carolina his paw
And his maw were so thrilled,
Excited, fulfilled -
Though his sister just sneered and said, "Blah!"

2. I once told a chap crying poor
'Bout the high price of sex in Cheraw
To stop if once bitten,
But he said he's smitten,
And can't help but go back for more!

3. A Welshman who came to Cheraw
Decided to take him a squaw
They built a nice tepee
O'erlooking the Pee Dee
And bred half-breeds per common law.

4. I've heard it said, down in Cheraw,
They've got them some new kind of law,
says, folks who do pee-pee
In our river Pee-Dee
Will in our jail soon some time draw.

5. There once was a man from Cheraw
Who liked to spit his daily chaw
Down into the Pee Dee,
But folks found this seedy,
And made his deed against the law.

6. Said a virile young man of Cheraw
Whose lover kept asking for more
"I will do what I can
But since we began
I'm becoming increasingly sore.

7. Said a lusty young lass of Cheraw
"You plead that you're reddened and sore
And you can't sate my need
So it's 'Goodbye' indeed
I need someone who can just give me more.

8. Millie, a girl from Cheraw
Rolled in the grass in the raw
With Billy Bob Tilley-
She did sumthin' silly,
Now someone calls them Maw and Paw!

Question:
Please vote for your favorite

Choices:
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight

 

bump

Some health problems prevented me from having the energy or inclination to get one in on time so I'll just add my two cents here.


A lusty young babe in Cheraw
To her bed did a lover implore.
"I might find perfect peace
With my tool in your crease,
But I've lost sixteen friends down your maw."

quote:

bump

Agreed.

Not sure why 8 is getting any votes let alone leading the Poll - surely Line 2 is a homophone and not a rhyme at all. I could have accepted Cheraw and "the raw" as double syllable rhymes if there had been any attempt to do the same in Line 5, but there wasn't.

For Greg's commentary, I say 'Hurraw!'

Almost always I don't agree with anyone's vote here. Before we started playing this game, I thought people would agree on what's good and what's not. However, I've found that's not the case. Sometimes a limerick, which I don't think is that clever and which, to me, has multiple technical problems, will win.

Therefore, I imagine those who selected #8 had reasons of their own, which don't jive with your reasons (or with mine; I did not vote for #8 either). On the other hand, it is likely the people who chose #8 won't understand why I (or you, Greg) voted for ours. It just seems to be the nature of the beast in this game.

[Edited for clarity]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

Do I have the authority to break the deadlock and declare a winner?

You're the referee, umpire, line judge, goal tender, and ultimate authority, oh Great One.

Sure, Geoff. I am dying to know who wrote #8!

Something about "When Geoffrey was born in Cheraw" suggests it was written by Geoff. So this leaves him in the difficult position of having to either vote for his own, which he would no doubt feel most uncomfortable doing or No. 8. So it looks like No. 8 wins, unless of course somebody else breaks the deadlock or brings another limerick into the tie.

#1 was Kalleh's

$2 was Greg's

#3,4, and 5 were B35's

#6 and 7 were Bob's

#8 was written by an idiot who can't rhyme

Since I started this round, I hereby declare Kalleh the winnah.

I hope Proofreader stays healthy and doesn't miss any more games!

Well here are my reasons based on my pronunciations

1. Line 5 doesn't rhyme
2. Line 1 doesn't rhyme
3. Could't make line 5 scan
4. Found the wording of L5 awkward
5. Could't make line 5 scan
6.My own
7 My own
8 I voted for 8

See, that's how it goes. Bob, neither your nor Greg's limericks rhymed for me. I did like Geoff's; the rhyming was perfect for me (yes, there was a homophone, but this is hardly OEDILF) - and I loved L3-4. However, I couldn't get L5 to scan.

I am not even sure which one I voted for now. It may have been Bob's #6. While the rhymes didn't work for me, I think I decided that they must work for English accents.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

All of them seemed to rhyme to me, but maybe I've heard a few too many English and Australian accents. And, yes, indeed, I committed homophony.

quote:

Bob, neither your nor Greg's limericks rhymed for me.

- Kalleh

quote:

2. Line 1 doesn't rhyme

- Bob

So Bob's doesn't rhyme for Kalleh and mine doesn't rhyme for either of you. In my lingo all the following words are perfect homonyms:

pore, poor, pour & paw

Just like their, there and they're. And for the record that's the way those 4 words all sound to me when spoken in the American dominated TV Shows we get on Aussie TV, and most of the UK ones for that matter too.

So I'm trying to figure out how you guys pronounce "poor", and the only thing I can think is that it must be like "poo-er", as in one who poos - in which case I can see that wouldn't rhyme for you.

I voted for 3 by the way, although I had to force it a bit to make it scan in Line 5, but I loved the teepee and Pee Dee rhyme coupled with the squaw reference.

quote:

Originally posted by Greg S:

So I'm trying to figure out how you guys pronounce "poor", and the only thing I can think is that it must be like "poo-er", as in one who poos - in which case I can see that wouldn't rhyme for you.

Yep, that's the way it's said round these parts.The other three are homophones for me though.

quote:

pore, poor, pour & paw

Heah in Na Englin, we say pAWr, poor, pAWr, and pAW. Of course, here merry, Mary, marry all are pronounced differently while further south (below the Mason-Dixon line), they tend to be the same pron. Really big differences regionally.

Hey guys,
I'm sorry I haven't been able to participate in the limericks much.

I have a suggestion, however. Maybe it's a bad idea, and has been discussed before. Since limericks rely on the rhyme of words so heavily, it would make sense to me to write the pronunciation of words phonetically in your local dialect or intended colloquialism. It would help the reader to get the rhyme better.

I don't understand some of the rhymes here. I don't understand, for instance, how a word ending in "r" rhymes with a word that doesn't have an "r" in it. Do I make the "r" silent, or am I supposed to add an r-sound to my pronunciation of the other word? ie: if "paw" is pronounced like "pawr" in your dialect, it might help to add the "r" for us with our obscure accents.

Good to see you back, Tom. If you look at the original post in this round, you'll see that I linked to the Wikipedia article on Cheraw, which gives a pronunciation.

This has been a great example of how varied English pronunciation is in various regions!

I had an email last week from a someone in Pahrump, Nevada. Now how do you antipodal and British chaps say that!

quote:

Yep, that's the way it's said round these parts.

So just as a matter of interest does that mean you also "moo-er" your boats?

No, that one rhymes with paw, sore and pore

MOOr. The "r" doesn't get the "er" sound. It would be blended, rather than separated for me.

quote:

MOOr. The "r" doesn't get the "er" sound. It would be blended, rather than separated for me.

Agreed but the weird thing is Bob agrees too. So why does he pronounce "poor" as "poo-er". For me and logically poor and moor rhyme.

Crazy language we speak.

After all (from a poem I wrote called Pronunciation from my book "Casting Nasturtiums"):

With off in cough
It's tough enough
But with no thought for you,
It's oh in though
And ow in bough
And still we aren't yet through.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Greg S,

And on a similar theme I give you "Ought It Not Be", also from my book "Casting Nasturtiums":

If taught is 'did teach'
Ought not "blaught" be 'did bleach'?
If caught is 'did catch'
Ought not "snaught" be 'did snatch'?
If fought is 'did fight'
Ought not "lought" be 'did light'?
If brought is 'did bring'
Ought not "strought" be 'did string'?
If bought is 'did buy'
Ought not "gought" be 'did guy'?
If sought is 'did seek'
Ought not "rought" be 'did reek'?
If thought is 'did think'
Ought not "wought" be 'did wink'?
But ought it not be
That the "~ought" ought not be?

Precisely. If you are applying the "same spelling means same pronunciation" rule then all of the following should have a similar sound.

though, thought, cough, plough. rough. through, hiccough

when in fact they are all different, so why, because of a similar spelling should"ppor" and "moor" have to be the same?

Well...the only reason you might give your reader a chance to pronounce it the same way you do, is when you are having a contest where meter and rhyme are important to win the contest. It is relatively clear to me from reading this thread that many of you all who are expert in limericks can't get certain poems to work because of different pronunciations.

The same might be true for the syllables. An example some might pronounce "different" with three syllables, and some with two. Same with "Carolina" (Care-line-a and Care-o-line-a"). For the sake of the poem, the author might want to clarify (either in some separate text or with a more phonetic spelling) for the words that they know might be confusing to some of their audience.

How many times have I heard someone say "I couldn't get the meter and rhyme to work on limerick no. 2".

It's just a thought (not suggesting some kind of rule) to consider when writing your limerick.

'nuff said....

Just before reading the preceding, I saw the TV commercial for Dragon software. This is the program that types whatever you speak. But I wonder how it differentiates the various accents spoken into it and also, in addition, what does it do to decide which homophonic word to use? For example, how would it render "There are two to's in this sentence"?

I give Geoff the award for being the most globally competent here in pronunciation. He had no problems, he said, with any of them. Love your diversity, Geoff! He made me think that I am being far too stingy with rhyming so I am going to flex up a bit.

Tom, it is great to see you back, and you make a good suggestion. I'll try it, for those who want to listen, since I am up next.