[Max Goodman]

Your typographical opinions, please. In a book of limericks, what is the preferred way of handling a line that's too long to fit. It seems to me there are three options:

1.
AAAAAAAAAAA
BBBBBBBBBBBB
BB
...CCCCCC
...DDDDDD
EEEEEEEEEEE


2.
AAAAAAAAAAA
BBBBBBBBBBBB
..BB
...CCCCCC
...DDDDDD
EEEEEEEEEEE


3.
AAAAAAAAAAA
BBBBBBBBBBBB
...,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,BB
...CCCCCC
...DDDDDD
EEEEEEEEEEE

And is it important to make the same choice for every long line? It seems to me that when the last line is too long, the best option is this one, but it might not be the best choice for other lines.

3.
AAAAAAAAAAA
BBBBBBBBBBBB
...CCCCCC
...DDDDDD
EEEEEEEEEEE
...,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,EE

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Jayne Osborn]

Hi Max,

It's almost midnight and I've been looking after my two-year-old grandson all day, so both of those things are conspiring to make me read your post and go "Huh?'' (Sorry!) I just can't make head or tail of it at the moment...

Can you provide some examples of what you mean, in actual words, for your cranially-challenged very tired friend, please?

Jayne

[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by Jayne Osborn

Can you provide some examples of what you mean, in actual words

Sure. Posting the lims that this is actually about would violate the rules here, so let's just pretend that the relative lengths of these lines make this a sensible question.

1.
A remarkable bird is the pelican
His beak can hold more than his
belican.
...He can hold in his beak
...Enough food for a week,
Though I'm darned if I see how the helican.

2.
A remarkable bird is the pelican
His beak can hold more than his
..belican.
...He can hold in his beak
...Enough food for a week,
Though I'm darned if I see how the helican.

3.
A remarkable bird is the pelican
His beak can hold more than his
.............................................belican.
...He can hold in his beak
...Enough food for a week,
Though I'm darned if I see how the helican.


And

3.
A remarkable bird is the pelican
His beak can hold more than his belican.
...He can hold in his beak
...Enough food for a week,
Though I'm darned if I see how the
.............................................helican.

[Jayne Osborn]

Ah... I get what you mean. (Duh! )
I'm in bed now, using my phone, so I'm going to look at my books of limericks in the morning and I'll come back.

Too tired to think any more thoughts...

Jayne

[Allen Tice]

Type 3. Always.
Second choice (bad), Type 1.
Never type 2.

[Kevin Rainbow]

Why wouldn't you use larger pages and/or slightly smaller text? If you are putting the Limericks in two or more columns, consider perhaps saving some pages at the back that have less columns and therefore more horizontal room to fit the Limericks that have longer lines.

[Jim Moonan]

.
I'm with Kevin's view. Why not

A remarkable bird is the pelican
His beak can hold more than his belican.
He can hold in his beak
Enough food for a week
Though I'm darned if I see how the helican.

.
.

[Max Goodman]

I should maybe have given more context. This is for a book of over 150 limericks. 3 or 4 of them have lines that are too long to fit. Neither using multiple font sizes nor reducing the print size for the whole book strike me as wise solutions. Of course, you didn't know the whole story, and I appreciate the suggestion.

Thank you for sharing your opinion, Allen. I hope others will share theirs.

[Max Goodman]

Nobody but Allen has an opinion about this, huh? Anyone able to point me to a resource for this sort of information? I've looked and failed to find anything. Likely I'm being stupid about search terms.

I'm pretty sure that option #3 is the standard solution, and it works well when, as is usually the case, the lines of the poem are similar in length. It seems to me that in a limerick, or any poem in which the standard solution gives the appearance of a blank line mid-stanza, it's problematic.

I'll be grateful for reader reactions or for any resource anyone can point me toward.

Thanks in advance.

[Jayne Osborn]

Hi Max,

I haven't had a chance to get back to this till now, sorry...

I've looked at my assorted books of limericks, and The Little Book of Naughty Limericks (the pages are only 10.5cm x 14cm with quite a small font) has every poem in the book fully centered on the page, which is an attractive layout. If you're going for a larger book could that be an option?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxA remarkable bird is the pelican
xxxxxxxxHis beak can hold more than his belican.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxHe can hold in his beak
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxEnough food for a week,
xxxxxxxThough I'm darned if I see how the helican.

Jayne