[R. S. Gwynn]

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poet...article/250592

[John Whitworth]

ingenious and interesting. I have to say I didn't think any one of his limericks as good as Lear's.

[Matt Q]

Agreed, John. Interesting article, slightly disappointing limericks.

[Julie Steiner]

Well, he did give fair warning in the article, which I enjoyed, that his just-plain-silly taste in limericks is not universally appreciated.

But yeah--I, too, thought Lear's were better, and that's a pretty low bar from where I'm standing. Meh. (I didn't think the illustrations were all that fabulous, either.)

Still, not everything needs my personal approbation to be enjoyable for someone else.

[Kyle Norwood]

What were the Poetry editors thinking?* I wonder if they will be accepting many more limericks at this skill level, or if (as I suspect) Mr. Madrid has saturated the market for another century or so.

*(But every now and then they make up for it by publishing something magnificent, like Frank Bidart's "Fourth Hour of the Night" earlier this year.)