17 DECEMBER 1983, Page 42

Laugh .a line

Jeffrey Bernard

Sweet and Sour An Anthology of Comic Verse Edited by Christopher Logue Illustrations by John Glashan (Batsford £6.95) The Penguin Book of Limericks Compiled and edited by E. 0. Parrott Illustrations by Robin Jacques (Allen Lane £7.95) s the dust jacket of Sweet and Sour says, comic verse is funny if you think it is. Quite so. But the dust jacket of the Penguin Book of Limericks quotes Robert Conquest who has said, 'our existence would be that much grimmer except for the solace of limericks.' I can only hope that he meant that the solace comes in the writing of limericks. I can do without them in spite of the excellence of a very few. If you like contrived humour, a real effort at humour, then I suppose you like being told jokes by travelling salesmen or being buttonholed by the did you hear the one about . . . man. For my money this book is the ideal Christmas present to be bought by a person who has run out of ideas of what to give for Christmas, to be presented to any anal obsessive who keeps books in the lavatory. But take no notice of me. Far better men have contributed to this anthology. There are three W. H. Auden limericks, two Bet- jemans, a Burgess, a James Joyce, and a Dylan Thomas. More to the point, my point anyway, is that there arc five from Martin Fagg and 12 from the editor. Anyone, then, who likes literary competi- tions in up market journals such as this one is going to love it. I'm surprised that our own Jaspistos hasn't made a contribution but he's made an excellent one in Sweet and Sour. What doesn't surprise me is that far and away the best author in limericks for the loo is that elusive fellow Anon.

On the chest of a barmaid in Sale Were tatooed the prices of ale, And on her behind, For the sake of the blind, Was the same information in Braille.

At least he scores points for consistency even though he's not as clever as Auden whose best offering is nicely bitchy.

As the poets have mournfully sung, Death takes the innocent young, The rolling-in-money, The screamingly funny, And those who are very well hung.

Also, beyond the comprehension of the pub joke teller, is a nice one from Roger Wodd is, There was an Old Man with a Beard, Who said: 'I demand to be feared. Address Me as God, And love Me, you sod!'

And Man did just that, which is weird.

The editor of Sweet and Sour modestly includes only three of his own verses, and one of them merely a two-liner, and a nicely depressing piece of advice which I suspect is directed at authors.

When all else fails, try Wales.

It would be good if he extended that one day although brevity is a virtue in comic verse, to wit a verse by Jacob Bronowski a surpriSing appearance — called 'Method'.

O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird Or but a wandering voice? State the alternative preferred With reasons for your choice.

The only longish poem, three pages of it, which doesn't become a grind to read, as a shaggy dog story becomes hard work to listen to, is James Michie's 'Dooley is a Traitor'. This is indeed clever stuff but I'm not sure that it's all that comic. About the trial of a conscientious objector, I didn't know whether to laugh at the wit or reach for the Kleenex, Sad, it is. And, speaking of sadness, I was surprised to see an entry from Malcolm Lowry but not of course four from that old favourite and other lush, Dorothy Parker. (What a tiresome woman she must really have been with her depres- sions lacking brevity). The ladies do very well in this anthology: nice one Logue.