Macaronic Limerick

First off, this limerick (despite its name) has nothing to do with macaroni. I’m not suffering from Passover pasta-withdrawal. Nor do my dreams (or nightmares) ever feature anything of a noodle nature.

So why the title? I just learned, from the delightfully informative Miss Rumphius, about the rare and usually comic form called macaronic verse. What the heck is macaronic verse? We’re told that it’s a usually absurd and nonsensical “poem in a mixture of two languages, one of them preferably Latin,” and that “the poet usually subjects one language to the grammatical laws of another to make people laugh.”

So naturally I had to try it, mixing legal terms (mostly Latin) in with standard limerick English:

Macaronic Limerick
By Madeleine Begun Kane

The corpus is AWOL. Oh my!
I attest that I left it hereby.
What a bona fide mess.
My mentis has stress.
It’s de facto I mortemed that fly.

(Linked at We Write Poems pairings prompt.)

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32 Responses to “Macaronic Limerick”

  1. Tricia says:

    People are walking by my office wondering why I’m in hysterics! Well done. (You know I’ll be repeating this every time I kill one of the little buggers!)

  2. madkane says:

    Thanks, Tricia! I knew my law degree would come in handy, one day. :)

  3. Gloria says:

    The two forms combine well for a jolly rhyme….it gave me a good chuckle. ;)

  4. Elisson says:

    My love is like a Rose Sauvage,
    My stomach needs gastric lavage.
    My tastes outclass my meager budget,
    I needs must fly, ’cause tempus fugit.

  5. Elisson says:

    (And, yes, I know that fugit does not rhyme with budget. Poetic license, we calls it.)

  6. Bill Tracy says:

    Pesach has passed
    Easter has massed
    La Dia de Madre is coming
    My birthday cake will be yumming!
    Ach du lieber this year is fast!

  7. pamela says:

    Thanks for the laugh, Madeleine :)

    Pamela

  8. Amanda says:

    Hilarious Mad should we call you “The fly killer”? And then Bill? English Spanish and German too funny thanks for the heads up on Holidays Bill!

  9. Awesome and fun! Thanks, friend.

  10. JTS says:

    Wonderful, WONDERFUL!! I never fail to leave your blog with a smile on my face and laughter in my heart! You creative spirit is such fun!

  11. Granny Smith says:

    That’s hilarious! It’s made my day.

  12. Bob kennedy says:

    I’m doing this from my iPad, which keeps correcting all my foreign words. Although I’m of Irish Catholic extraction, I prefer the Vaudeville/Catskills tradition of peppering my verse with Yiddish. I present the tale of Frankenstein:

    A meshuggenah doctor named Victor
    Built a Golem quite large. What a picture!
    He shocked it to life
    It demanded a wife
    Vic said no, so Vic’s bride? Monster nicked ‘er.

  13. madkane says:

    Thanks for your delightful verse Elisson, Bill, and Bob.

    And thanks everyone for your enthusiasm. I enjoyed writing this and am glad to hear you enjoyed reading it. :)

  14. Olivia says:

    lolsss
    That’s a brave attempt!! I so loved it for its humorous nature.. lolssss

    Wishing you a nice week!
    Hugs xox

  15. madkane says:

    Thanks, Olivia!

  16. Versebender says:

    Mad, I never heard that term before, thanks for the education. I must say this is really, really good. The construction is just so very clever…the result…perfect. You’re great. vb

  17. madkane says:

    Versebender, what a lovely compliment! Thanks so much!

  18. Nicole says:

    Saw this and thought of you.

    Royal Wedding Limericks

  19. madkane says:

    Thanks for letting me know about it, Nicole. :)

  20. dustus says:

    “It’s de facto I mortemed that fly.” lmao

  21. brian says:

    haha…love it…fun word play…even the bona…smiles.

  22. kez says:

    thanks for the chuckles !

  23. Lisa says:

    What a great story. Laughed all the way through.

    Lisa
    InspiredbyLisa

  24. Tilly Bud says:

    This one is pretty clever.

  25. Nessa says:

    That was fun and legally intoxicating.

  26. David says:

    Learn something, enjoy something: wonderful!

  27. margo roby says:

    Well, it works! This was the first response I read and you should write more of these.

  28. I love the way your limerick tickles my tongue. I will be grinning all day. Thanks for the rib rub.
    Regards,
    Don

  29. Victoria says:

    So fun–I’ve got to try it!

  30. What a fun combo! Thanks for linking into the Smiley Sociology Study. :)

  31. neil reid says:

    And here I thought it was gonna be about the invention of wireless… till I put my glasses on! Thanks!

  32. madkane says:

    Thanks to all of you for your kind comments!