THE POETRY OF NONSENSE
[To the Editor of the SeeeraTon.] Sin,—Among the delectable nonsense verses quoted in your illuminating review of M. Emile Cammaerts' book (Spectator, pp. 274-7) there is a variant of W. S. Gilbert's celebrated un- rhymed limerick. According to earlier recorders, however, the young man who was stung hailed not from St. Bees but from Tralee. Thus :- " There was a young man of Tralee Who was stung in the arm by a Wasp. When they said ' Does- it hurt ? '
He replied ' Not at all : Let him sting me again, if he likes.' "
Here the element of surprise is introduced by the sudden re- jection of the obvious rhyming word " bee " ; and the follow- ing lines match each other exactly : not as in the St. Bees version where a loose syllable as tacked on to the terminal anapest, marring the form.
Bearing in mind that, in the first instance, the verse was an impromptu effusion, is it not probable that the one you quote was the original, and that Gilbert afterwards revised it ?—I
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