Poems (Strong)/Nonsense Verses; Limericks

by Laura Coster Strong

NONSENSE VERSES LIMERICKS upon the Purchase of the 'Alice' Marblehead, August, 1901

There was a young man at the 'Neck,'
And he wanted to own his own deck,
    For he said, "I've a tub
    And that is the rub,"
And he scorned the fine 'Grant' of the 'Neck.'

There was a young man bold and free
Said, "No custom-house laws are for me.
    If they want to enmesh
    I'll be equally fresh,
And I'll gayly prance over the sea."

There was a young man very bright
And he wanted so much to do right
    That he told all his biz
    To the powers that is,
And thereon his boat was locked tight.

There was a young man sailed the main,
And he said, "Why are you in pain?
    It's no use to be scared
    For I never yet dared
To play tricks when the sea raises Cain."

Said a man, "If I had greater room, kin
My boat be supplied with a boomkin?
    And a well-ordered mess
    That never grows less
Of Kennedy crackers and poomkin?"

Said a man as he got out abaft her,
"My boat is the scene of much laughter,
    For I tie to the spot
    Where the storm strikes the yacht,
And that is the pleasure we're after."

THREE LIMERICKS EXTEMPORIZED SEPT. 2, 1901,
on first going aboard the 'Alice'

There was a young man who said, "Lo,
I will sail all my boats in a row.
    If you don't own a fleet,
    You must take a back seat,
And I'll be the boss of the show."

Said a man with a face full of woe,
"There's a riddle I want much to know;
    How is it that I'm
    To sail five boats at a time?
And that is what's troubling me so."

Said a man, "If my boat had a jigger
I could cut a most elegant figger;
    I'd sail forward and back
    Without making a tack,
And I'd feel about twenty times bigger."