BBC Radio 3: 3 Breakfast Programme.

[John H White]

I note that the presenters of this morning programme are asking for listeners to send in serious limericks. How about sending one in deploring the dearth of music from our kind of composers in their programs? I'm trying to write one myself, but I don't seem to be able to get it right.

[Mark Thomas]

To satisfy Radio Three
John's limerick, in which he
bemoans "no unsungs"
failed to climb all the rungs
So he gave up and drank some tea...

Needs some work I think...

[John H White]

LOL Mark!
Here is my "serious limerick" as far as it goes:
        The BBC don't understand,
        They bury their heads in the sand.
        Bach, Beethoven, Brahms have plenty of charms,
          Spohr, Raff and Lachner are banned!

[Mark Thomas]

Reads pretty well to me John. If I had the temerity to suggest a change it would be:

The BBC don't understand,
They bury their heads in the sand.
Although Beethoven and Brahms have plenty of charms,
Why do Spohr, Raff and Lachner seem banned?

[Amphissa]

 
I don't do BBC3, but I can certainly appreciate the idea.

There was an old maid, BBC,
Her playlist was B, B and B,
   Enough is enough
   It’s the same old stuff
How ‘bout some A, C thru Z?
 

[Alan Howe]

True unsung, Johann Rufinatscha,
Wrote music which words barely capture,
His 6th Symphony -
The great one in D -
Would send a Proms crowd into raptures!

[Hofrat]

I did not think anyone could rhyme "Rufinatscha!"

[Mark Thomas]

Alan, you're a natural!

[Gareth Vaughan]

The Controller of Radio 3
Thought his audience was bound to agree
That Holbrooke and Raff
Were both utterly naff
And would not be their cup of tea!

[JimL]

About Alan's limerick:

The 's' at the end is unnecessary, and kind of throws it off for me.

And rhyming 'Rufinatscha' and 'capture' only works if you have the late Patrick McGoohan's accent - wherever he was from.

I take that back.  It's also valid in a Boston accent.

[Alan Howe]

The 's', unfortunately and dagnabit, is necessary, Jim. Otherwise it doesn't make sense. However, I agree in a way: I need a last line which ends 'rapture' (sing).

[JimL]

I hate to lecture a true native speaker on his mother tongue, but I don't follow.  What is the difference between one rapture and several?  Cannot several small raptures be called one big one?  Is it bad English to be 'sent into rapture?'

Just curious.

[Alan Howe]

Yes - according to my Chambers Dictionary the expression involves the plural. However, poetic licence and all that...

[JimL]

Hmmmmmmmm.  How 'bout 'send Proms crowds into A rapture', then?  I mean if the singular 'crowd' takes a plural 'raptures', then shouldn't the plural 'crowds' take the singular?  Clear as mud to me.

Frankly, I thought you'd be rather more miffed that rhyming 'Rufinatscha' and 'capture' only works if you hail from certain necks of the woods.  But I suppose that's the most clever thing about it!

[Alan Howe]

But then, Jim, it wouldn't scan, you see....

And an outrageous rhyme is part of the fun, isn't it?