Singable Limerick-Medley: LITERARY CLASSICS

POST #151: Singable Limericks 

ORIGINAL SONG: These verses can be sung to  "The Limerick Song", as per YouTube here.
LIMERICK VERSE:  Original verses composed by Giorgio Coniglio,

August 2017. Some of these verses can also be found in OEDILF, the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form. Access numbers for the OEDILF versions are located at the bottom of the relevant slides.

CONTENTS: 

1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

2. Inferno (in translation) *

3. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

4. The Raven *

5. La Belle Dame Sans Merci *

6. Jabberwocky *

7. Trees **(Joyce Kilmer)

*     see the post on "Edifying Nonsense" - Classic Poetry (scheduled for publication April 2019)
* *  see the post on "Edifying Nonsense" - Sappy Verse: Limericks About Kilmer's "Trees"

 
LITERARY CLASSICS

A LIMERICK MEDLEY

(to the tune of 'The Limerick Song'. Display of the lyrics has been condensed to 4 lines for each verse, with internal rhyming in line 3, rather than the more customary 5-line limerick format.) 

1. Our hero, poor Hamlet's ill-starred.
Why 'bear fardels'? The choice isn't hard.
Prince's folks are such odd kin, he'll select the bare bodkin.
This play's now too short! Blame the Bard.

2. Extending his cellphone's antenna,
Dante dialled from dark woods near Gehenna,
"I need Virgil as guide. Get me out, ere I'm fried."
Year and place? 1300, Ravenna.
    Overhead a celestial plea,
"Beatrice, pick up the call on Line Three:
This guy claims, lost in Wood, GPS is no good;
Wants a tour-guide or refund of fee.“

3. Twain read Mallory's legend Le Morte...,
 Dreamed mechanic named Hank to transport.
His Connecticut Yankee lived life strange, but quite swanky,
As court's "Boss" out-charmed Merlin  for sport.
Things turned out not so well, I report.

4. There's an author whose works I abhor.
They explore only terror and gore.
So, Poe's verses? I'm loath to repeat what he quoth,
And to utter "Lenore" evermore.

5. My heretical view: Seems to me,
It's grotesque, just a bad rêverie.
Errant knight, lance down, caught in a child's 'elfin grot',
In John Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci".

6. To frabjously deal with the Jabberwock
Keep your vorpal sword close in its scabbard-sock
(He'll distract, turn your crank some, 'cause down deep, he's most
   manxome);
To sneak up on the beast, do a badger-walk.

7. Poems are joys; you recite and repeat ‘em,
But in life, one thing surely can beat 'em:
Trees, as Kilmer conceived, and good dryads believed -- 
Check that out at the right arboretum.

UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT

 (Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)