Won't you come up...? (Limerick)

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Wed Jun 24 00:02:20 UTC 2009


This is complicated, but a look at Google Books will explain all.  In
essence:

1913 Walter Ben Hare _The Boy Scouts_ (Boston: Walter H. Baker) 42:
To be sung to the tune of "The Grand Old Duke of York." ...

Chorus: Oh, won't you come up, come up,
Oh, won't you come up to me,
Oh, won't you come up, come all the way up,
Come all the way up to me? ...

There was a young girl Margaretta,
So sweet not a youth could forgetta,
They would sit 'neath the moon
With Margie and spoon,
And petta and petta and petta. ...

[Etc., with nine more limericks.]

Not quite the Holy Grail of Limerickdom, but closer. The tune given on p. 51
needs adjusting to fit. It reminds me (vaguely) of the Irish slip jig,
"Won't You Come Up to Limerick?" The limericks apparently are meant to be
spoken, not sung.

JL

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