Steve Holden wrote: > Tim Churches wrote: >> There once was a language called Python... >> >> (which is pretty close to having three anapaestic left feet) >> >> or more promisingly, rhyme-wise, but metrically rather worse : >> >> There once was a mathematician named van Rossum... >> >> Tim C >> > Of course this last suggestion clearly has the wrong meter for a good > limerick.
I did say it was metrically worse... > Not everyone knows the ingredients of a good limerick, which > led to the following (which has been around in various forms since God > was a lad): > > There was a young man from Japan > Who never quite learned how to scan. > He got on quite fine > Until the last line > And then somehow he could never quite get the number of syllables > right,or make it rhyme. This page on meta-limericks is worth a look: http://www.kith.org/logos/words/lower/l.html > So, let's accept that the first line should scan correctly, that would > make the following first lines acceptable: > > A mathematician named Guido ... > The inventor of Python, called Guido ... > A mathematician (van Rossum) ... > Van Rossum, inventor of Python ... > > Hopefully that will begin to get the idea across. The Wikipaedia page on limericks is also worth reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limericks > Since it's PyCon week, I will offer a prize of $100 to the best (in my > opinion) limerick about Python posted to this list (with a Cc: to > [EMAIL PROTECTED]) before midday on Friday. The prize money will be my > own, so there are no other rules. I will post my judgment when the PyCon > nonsense has died down a little, but the winner will be read before the > entire PyCon audience. Get to it! My first attempt (which does not scan properly): A Dutch mathematician most prophetic, Did invent a language, name herpetic. With design quite intelligent, And syntax mostly elegant, Big ideas could be made non-hypothetic. Tim C -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
