‘There Once Was an Artist Called Lear…’

To the Editors:

It is sad that Brad Leithauser, in his essay on Edward Lear [NYR, November 5, 2009], failed to take the opportunity to quote Morris Bishop’s limerick on the limerick:

The limerick’s furtive and mean,
You must keep her in close quarantine.
Or she slips to the slums
And shortly becomes
Disorderly, drunk, and obscene.

What is even sadder is the disappearance of humorous verse from its old haunts, such as The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal.

Barbara R. Bergmann
Professor of Economics Emerita University of Maryland and American University
Washington, D.C.