H05004 PRIZE-WINNING LIMERICKS- 1/5/05 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES ____________________________________________________________________________

From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu

Subject: Re: PRIZE-WINNING Limericks:

Date: January 5, 2005 9:49:58 AM PST

Greetings ALL:

Announcing the Prizewinners for the Best Limerick of the Frolicking Season!

__________________

 

Well -- I have to say that here's a pretty kettle of fish: It may well be that TTHA's Board of Judges has been extended to its utmost intellectual limit in evaluating these verses! However, after submitting our votes to a renowned Hardy scholar for final assessment we are delighted to announce that the

First prize goes to . . . . Limerick Number 9 -- Michael Barry

Second prize goes to . . . Limerick Number 13 -- Martin Hemming

And a third prize will be awarded to Limerick Number 1. -- John Bridell

CONGRATULATIONS to all on a wonderfully inventive set of verses and thank you everyone -- all contributors -- for the pleasurable entertainment you have given all of us over the past few weeks.

Prizewinners should contact me privately to let me know their choice of prize from TTHA's list of publications or the Man of Wessex videotape created by Professor Eugene Davis (sorry to say this only works with US equipment).

And a Happy New Year to One and All!

 

Cheers,

Rosemarie

________________________________

 

 

1. There once was a preacher distracted

Who obeyed every law as enacted

But, his love by bold chance

Smuggled brandy from France

And the preacher was quite flabbergasted!

2. A shocked and censorious press

Took Hardy to task over _Tess_

Their morals weren't higher,

'Twas twisted desire

To see Tess divest of her dress.

3.With Jude Hardy broke many a rule

And they called him a rake and a fool

They'd have given him slack

If he'd been a mere hack

Had he gone to a much better school.

4. With Jude Hardy broke many a rule

Critics called him a rake and a fool

They'd have given him slack

If he'd been a mere hack

Had he gone to a much better school.

5.There once was a Dorsetshire fellow

Who carolled all night on the 'cello

His extremities froze

He lost three of his toes

'cos the cider had made him so mellow.

6. If one aimed to be named "magisterial"

When one pounced on old Hardy's material

As an endless supply

That would never run dry

Take my tip!

Ones ideas are ethereal.

7. Hardy_s channeled through R. Nemesvari

Through the Morgans both BIll and Rosemarie

Through Niemeyer and Schweik he

Lives on in our psyche

Through Cortus and Buckle and Barry.

8.A sozzled hay-trusser 'strook dumb'

Sold his Sue to a sailor for a sum

The results of his sin

Were few kith and no kin

And twenty-one years off the rum.

9. Nubile but poor Ethelberta

Refused to let men ever hurt her;

Won Society's glories

By telling tall stories

Then allowed an old Lord to unskirt her.

10. A modest young milkmaid named Tess

To her bridegroom a sin did confess

Her proud husband grew wild

When he learned of her child

And decreed they must part, more or less.

11.

At a fair Mike and Susan ate furmity

While he secretly fed his infirmity.

Then he sold off his wife,

Fashioned a grand new life

'Til his past came out in a skimmity.

 

12.It majestically rolls to a climax

Through ten years, three parts, nineteen acts,

Innumerable beings

In innumerable scenes

And a tolerable fidelity to facts.

13.Arabella the crude captured Jude,

And her company rude, Jude eschewed.

But his life in the city

With Sue ... pretty ... witty,

Was a story condemned as too lewd.

14. Though Hardy's vision of life was ironic

And some of his themes were Byronic,

About a world ruled by Chance

And crass happenstance,

He wrote numbers of works quite iconic.

 

15. To Hardy the world seemed a joke,

For him, circumstances were merely cloak

To make thou and me

Think how important we be,

When life really was all just thin smoke.

 

16. There was once an importunate he-male

Tried his luck with a difficult fe-male.

But she said 'Sorry mate you're already too late:

'And you cannot get round me by e-mail!'

 

17.To Me, this Tom Hardy is brand new,

Both He, Emma, Jude, Tess, and Florence;

Barbara Owen, and Max Gate

Are just Myst'ries, just can't wait --

So, now, I read onward, with patience.

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Resent-From: HARDY-L@csusm.edu

From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu

Subject: Re: PRIZE-WINNING Limericks:

Date: January 5, 2005 6:17:20 PM PST

To: HARDY-L@csusm.edu

Reply-To: HARDY-L@csusm.edu

Greeetings --

Just to assist the Limericks' poets (Seasonal Frolics Prizewinners) choose their TTHA publications I am giving the url to a "Table of Contents Page." This is rather a rough and ready page and incomplete but it may help.

http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/Journal/journal.htm

With every good wish,

Rosemarie

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From: fsiedow@omniglobal.net

Subject: Re: SENT AGAIN: PRIZE-WINNING Limericks:

Date: January 9, 2005 3:54:07 PM PST

Rosemarie Morgan wrote:

Hi folks- .....Announcing the Prizewinners for the Best Limerick of the Frolicking Season!

 

Hi, Rosemarie, and all: Thanks for the great Limericks, and their creativity disclosed. Boy, was my face red when I saw my limerick didn't even rhyme the 1st line!! Somehow, the last word of the 1st line got left off -- "hence,". There were so many markups, deletions, other words, piled up on that scrap of paper, no wonder; I probably just copied it wrong to the email.

And, the last word should be vengeance. Thanks, and KUDOS to those more scholarly and elegant entrants.

 

The proper listing:

17.

To Me, this Tom Hardy is new, hence,

Both He, Emma, Jude, Tess, and Florence;

Barbara Owen, and Max Gate

Are just Myst'ries, just can't wait --

So, now, I read onward, with vengeance.

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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu

Subject: Fred's Frolic

Date: January 9, 2005 4:23:08 PM PST

Fred-- I admire your persistence. This is certainly a most ambitious limerick (all those names).

I think -- given your diligence -- we'll have to rethink the word "Frolics."

With every good wish,

Rosemarie

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From: michael@perceptivecreation.co.uk

Subject: Re: PRIZE-WINNING Limericks:

Date: January 9, 2005 8:34:24 PM PST

Mercy me, Good Heavens and Ohmygosh! I am delighted to be so honoured as to

win a Limerick Prize - I guess my Irish ancestry must tell! Whilst the deep

suspicion that the absolute peak of my literary talents has clearly come to

the fore in these Seasonal Frolickings is worrying (I think I won a prize a

year or two ago too!), I do relish the recognition and adulation that goes

with it! What a cheer-up to arrive home to, after the misery of stepping off

the Mallorca seven-day-sunshine plane into the grey wet sodden blustery

English January! Thanks Judges - and many congratulations to the other

winners, and indeed all the contestants, who offered us so much pith and wit

at this Annual Unwind Season. It's a pleasure to be counted "in" in such

company! Thanks too to Mr Hardy for the inspiration!

Best wishes for 2005

Michael Barry

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From: fsiedow@omniglobal.net

Subject: Thanks; Re: Fred's Frolic

Date: January 11, 2005 2:28:51 PM PST

Rosemarie Morgan wrote:

 

Fred-- I admire your persistence. This is certainly a most ambitious limerick (all those names).

 

I think -- given your diligence -- we'll have to rethink the word "Frolics."

With every good wish,

Rosemarie

WELL ! ! That's about the nicest thing you could say. Limericks, especially, should be funny, I think, and to have it (or myself) called a frolic is a great compliment, especially from this august group!

With my best wishes, frolicin' Fred.

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From: m.hemming@perpetuitygroup.com

Subject: Bowled over

Date: January 11, 2005 3:20:57 PM PST

My Limerick's won me a prize!

I confess I could scarce trust my eyes,

But receipt of an email

From such eminent female

As Rosemarie won't brook no lies - Thanks Guys!

Martin Hemming

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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu

Subject: Bowled Over

Date: January 11, 2005 4:02:47 PM PST

That was delightful Martin! Thank you too Fred. It seems the talents of

our members are unstoppable.

Best Wishes to you Both,

Betty

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From: fsiedow@omniglobal.net

Subject: I'm Bowled over, too

Date: January 12, 2005 11:00:46 AM PST

Martin Hemming wrote:

My Limerick's won me a prize!

I confess I could scarce trust my eyes,.....

.......BRAVO ! ! Even better than the 1st one. Thanks: Fred Siedow

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