Limericks about Reference Books

It seems like only last year I was sitting down to write my first limerick, embarking on a project that would eventually become my Encyclopedia of Limericks. That anthology has since scattered with the Four Winds, but my reverence for reference books has only grown greater. So, what better way to express my gratitude than with a series of limericks about reference books.

It would be impossible to write poetry without acknowledging the great debt we owe to those who came before us. From geniuses like Shakespeare and James Joyce to collaborators like the Brothers Grimm to the great lexicographers like Samuel Johnson, they shaped the words and plots that we pick up and use without a second thought. I’m reminded of how easily we can drive to the department store and purchase an appliance manufactured across the globe in a country we can’t pronounce using technologies that we couldn’t possibly understand.

Creativity is at the core of poetry, but no one writes in a vacuum. We, as writers, are all products of a great legacy, the latest in an endless stream of words and phrases that will never come full stop. Documenting and cataloging those words and phrases in dictionaries, encyclopedias and thesauruses can be a tedious task. But those who undertake to do it deserve our thanks and recognition.

With that in mind, I have written and compiled this short collection of limericks about reference books, treatises and periodicals.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
There once was a pithy expression
That left a long-lasting impression
On centuries of science
We live in reliance
Their knowledge is in our possession

Eking out Epigrams
Inspired by Nietzsche I’ve turned aphoristic
Firing salvos in phrases ballistic
Composed with concision
They may lack precision
But nothing I’ve said is a bit plagiaristic

Lady Killer
Protagonist enters with hardly a chance
Accosted by maidens all wanting to dance
Averting their looks
He clings his books
And what’s on his arm? It’s a treatise of Kant’s!

At a Loss For Words
Though my mind is both limber and porous
I stumble on what came before us
The words I once sung
Get stuck on my tongue
And that’s why I need a thesaurus

Wordsmith
The dictionary’s thick — I get lost in it
A synonym for antonym is opposite
A lover of words
And king of the nerds
Everyday after school I would pop a zit

Word Games
I once knew a girl who was frictionary
She joined me for long games of Pictionary
Acting out phrases
Exchanging long gazes
She ended up holding my dictionary

Expert in my Field
Twice as poetic as Ahab was nautical
Working with limericks I’m always methodical
More than overt with it
Now I’m quite sure of it
Someday I’ll run in a fine periodical

King Tide Conjunction
Ten thousand things and I’ve tussled with each
Einstein in Hollywood, Joyce on the Beach
Degrees of precision
From all forms of vision
And never a facet with nothing to teach