Posts Tagged ‘Robert Louis Stevenson’

How To Deal With A Stubborn Donkey (Limerick)

Tuesday, May 4th, 2021

After reading that the earliest use of “Proot” was found in Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes,” I couldn’t resist writing this limerick:

If your donkey behaves like a mule
And is moving too slowly, your tool
To boost the beast’s speed
And get him to heed
Is shout “PROOT!” (That’s the “Stevenson rule.”)

UPDATE: It just occurred to me that I used the current Limerick-Off rhyme-word “Tool” in this limerick, without planning to. But that gives me a good excuse to remind limerick writers about my Limerick-Offs. Here’s the link to my “tool”-rhyme contest. The entry deadline is May 15, 2021 at 4 p.m. Eastern time.

A Childhood Shadow

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Poetry prompts can serve up everything from fun inspiration to unsettling memories. For instance, the shadows prompt courtesy of Poets United Thursday Think Tank brought back a wistful early childhood memory of my late father Ernest Begun and Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. More specifically, the two of us reciting my favorite childhood poem, My Shadow.

I’m certain that the many hours we spent poring over that Stevenson volume had lots to do with my own versifying. And so, this haiku:

Robert Stevenson’s
I have a little shadow…
My dad’s knee at three.