A long time ago, noughts and crosses
Resulted in wins, draws and losses
But Randall Munroe
Has now solved tic tac toe
So it's futile to play noughts and crosses.
Original comic here.
Noughts and crosses is the English name for tic tac toe. I've used both names in my limerick to make it fit and rhyme properly.
I can't quite make up my mind about this one - I have a kind of instinctive aversion to the "same word in first and last lines" ones; on the other hand, it is very elegant - I like the way it shifts between "noughts and crosses" and "tic-tac-toe", and the use of Munroe's name.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, a non-repetitive rewrite:
There's a game and it's called tic-tac-toe.
It may give you some pleasure to know
You can outcomes display
In a fractally way
So you know where your marker should go.
I think I would prefer a rewrite that was just your limerick but with a different last line, though. Let me mediate for a while on things that rhyme with "crosses" and perhaps I shall return to this comic.
I agree that repeating the rhyme from the first line isn't to everyone's taste, but it was very common among the earliest limericks. I like to do it occasionally as a nod to the limerick's roots - used sparingly, I think it gives the poems a nice, old-fashioned flavour.
ReplyDeleteI think there are a couple of original Lears where the first and last lines are exactly the same!
ReplyDelete