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mmoustafa | 3 months ago

Post — “Ask HN: Can you write a limerick?”

Top Comment — “This reads like someone who just discovered poetry forms exist and thinks a limerick is some novel concept. The real challenge isn't writing one—any undergraduate can follow the AABBA scheme—it's understanding why meter and scansion matter beyond just counting syllables.

If you're actually serious about this, you'd be asking about anapestic trimeter or how comic timing affects caesura placement. The fact that you're not suggests you haven't done the groundwork.”

discuss

order

0xEF|3 months ago

Truly captures the spirit of these types of HN comments; Person A does a thing, Person B points out how pointless thing could have been done better in effort to flex smart.

Post - Blog post about recapping a Timex Sinclair 1000"

Response - "Ah yes, the 'multi-region composite mod'—because nothing screams cutting-edge like jury-rigging a 40-year-old potato to a VCR."

phyzix5761|3 months ago

> Truly captures the spirit of these types of HN comments; Person A does a thing, Person B points out how pointless thing could have been done better in effort to flex smart.

And then Person A goes off and founds Dropbox and 20 years later is worth $2.4 billion.

Forgeties79|3 months ago

So many open with “ah yes,” or “oh great,”

ErroneousBosh|3 months ago

> The real challenge isn't writing one—any undergraduate can follow the AABBA scheme—it's understanding why meter and scansion matter beyond just counting syllables.

There was a young man from Japan

Whose poetry didn't quite scan

When told this was so

He said "Yes, I know..."

"... it's probably because I try to cram as many syllables into the last line as I possibly can!"

and also

There was a young man from Wick

Whose limericks were twisted and sick

It's best not to mention

How he broke convention

...

botanrice|3 months ago

I know "lol" type comments aren't super typical or accepted on HN but I need to reply just to acknowledge that this comment made me legitimately laugh out loud in the workplace LOL (good luck explaining that one to my non-tech coworkers xD)