Geoff-Allen
Resident megalomaniac
You could make a good point that this should have been posted in the poetry section but a little-voice-inside-my-head told me IT may be better in here ... who knows? ... only time will tell if it belongs here ... it's anyone's guess and your opinion is just as valid as mine ...
Here it is -
There was an old Fellow of Trinity,
A Doctor well versed in Divinity,
But he took to free thinking
And then to deep drinking,
And so had to leave the vicinity.
"Nonsense Verses" by Arthur Clement Hilton
From an online article -
I would define nonsense, then, as a genre of narrative literature which balances a multiplicity of meaning with a simultaneous absence of meaning. This balance is effected by playing with the rules of language, logic, prosody and representation, or a combination of these. In order to be successful, nonsense must at the same time invite the reader to interpretation and avoid the suggestion that there is a deeper meaning which can be obtained by considering connotations or associations, because these lead to nothing. The elements of word and image that may be used in this play are primarily those of negativity or mirroring, imprecision or mixture, infinite repetition, simultaneity, and arbitrariness.12 A dichotomy between reality and the words and images which are used to describe it must be suggested. The greater the distance or tension between what is presented, the expectations that are evoked, and the frustration of these expectations, the more nonsensical the effect will be. The material may come from the unconscious (indeed, it is very likely in many instances to do so), but this may not be suggested in the presentation.13
In this example, play with infinity is used as a subsidiary transformation, and the cleverness of the author is in his ability to make as much "sense" as possible out of his material. Obviously, the aesthetic quality is negligible. The same goes for the following limerick, also from Gardner's annotations to Bombaugh:
Said the chemist: "I'll take some dimethyloximidomesoralamide
And I'll add just a dash of dimethylamidoazobensaldehyde;
But if these won't mix,
I'll just have to fix
Up a big dose of trisodiumpholoroglucintricarboxycide."
Read more here -
Nonsense Verse | Encyclopedia.com
Enjoy!
Here it is -
There was an old Fellow of Trinity,
A Doctor well versed in Divinity,
But he took to free thinking
And then to deep drinking,
And so had to leave the vicinity.
"Nonsense Verses" by Arthur Clement Hilton
From an online article -
I would define nonsense, then, as a genre of narrative literature which balances a multiplicity of meaning with a simultaneous absence of meaning. This balance is effected by playing with the rules of language, logic, prosody and representation, or a combination of these. In order to be successful, nonsense must at the same time invite the reader to interpretation and avoid the suggestion that there is a deeper meaning which can be obtained by considering connotations or associations, because these lead to nothing. The elements of word and image that may be used in this play are primarily those of negativity or mirroring, imprecision or mixture, infinite repetition, simultaneity, and arbitrariness.12 A dichotomy between reality and the words and images which are used to describe it must be suggested. The greater the distance or tension between what is presented, the expectations that are evoked, and the frustration of these expectations, the more nonsensical the effect will be. The material may come from the unconscious (indeed, it is very likely in many instances to do so), but this may not be suggested in the presentation.13
In this example, play with infinity is used as a subsidiary transformation, and the cleverness of the author is in his ability to make as much "sense" as possible out of his material. Obviously, the aesthetic quality is negligible. The same goes for the following limerick, also from Gardner's annotations to Bombaugh:
Said the chemist: "I'll take some dimethyloximidomesoralamide
And I'll add just a dash of dimethylamidoazobensaldehyde;
But if these won't mix,
I'll just have to fix
Up a big dose of trisodiumpholoroglucintricarboxycide."
Read more here -
Nonsense Verse | Encyclopedia.com
Enjoy!
