Sotto Voce

Rained heavily this afternoon, and this is what we saw from our balcony…

Exuberant Sue from Anjou

Found that f*****g affected her hue;

She presented to sight

Some parts pink, some parts white,

And others quite purple and blue.

A sleeper from the Amazon

Put nighties of his gra’mazon -

The reason: That

He was too fat

To get his own pajamazon.

An old maid in the land of Aloha

Got wrapped in the coils of a boa;

And as the snake squeezed,

The old maid, not displeased,

Cried: “Darling! I love it! Samoa!”

There was a young lady named Alice

Who peed in a Catholic chalice.

The padre agreed

‘Twas done out of need,

And not out of Protestant malice.

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The significance of the limerick, especially the bawdy limerick, as a tool for rebellion against oppression has been recognised for a long time, and one should not be too shocked to find limericks questioning the authority of the Church and lampooning Churchmen as lewd and corrupt, a tradition the limerick shares with the nursery rhyme.

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