So it goes

There was a young man from Honshu
Who tried limericks in haiku,
But

– Doug Holyman, in Word Ways, May 2007

L is for lovable Lena,
Who met a ferocious hyena;
Whatever occurred
I never have heard;
But anyhow, L is for Lena.

– Anonymous, from Carolyn Wells’ Book of American Limericks, 1925

I wish I were a jelly fish

That cannot fall downstairs:

Of all the things I wish to wish

I wish I were a jelly fish

That hasn’t any cares,

And doesn’t even have to wish

“I wish I were a jelly fish

That cannot fall downstairs.”

– G.K. Chesterton

The word albatross, by the way, is sometimes used to mean a psychological burden that feels like a curse.

“Ah! well-a-day! what evil looks

Had I from old and young!

Instead of the cross, the Albatross

About my neck was hung.”

Do read the Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798).

One night an errant Werewolf fled
His wife and child and visited
A village teacher’s sepulchre
And begged him: “Conjugate me, sir!”

The village teacher then awoke
And standing on his scutcheon spoke
Thus to the beast, who made his seat
With crossed paws at the dead man’s feet:

“The Werewolf,” said that honest wight,
“The Willwolf — future, am I right?
The Wouldwolf — wolf conditional,
The Beowulf — father of them all!”

These tenses had a pleasing sound,
The Werewolf rolled his eyeballs round,
And begged him, as he’d gone so far,
Add plural to the singular.

The village teacher scratched his head;
He’d never heard of that, he said.
Though there were “wolves” in packs and swarms,
Of “were” could be no plural forms!

There werewolf rose up blind with tears
– He’s had a wife and child for years!
But being ignorant of letters
He went home thankful to his betters.

– Christian Morgenstern

There was a young man from Darjeeling

Who got on a bus bound for Ealing;

It said at the door:

“Don’t spit on the floor,”

So he carefully spat on the ceiling.