# Is there a limerick-style cryptic clue?

Is there a cryptic clue that happens to be a limerick? Please also include the answer in spoilers.

• $$\frac{(12+144+20)+\left(3 \cdot \sqrt{4}\right)}{7}+(5 \cdot 11)=9^2+0\quad(6\text-3)$$ if you want to stretch both the definitions of "limerick" and "cryptic clue". – boboquack Sep 22 '19 at 7:14
• @boboquack What's the answer? I'm not good at solving cryptic clues. – Scratch---Cat Sep 22 '19 at 7:17
• I found this poem, but it's not a limerick. Also, The poem that you should give must have rhyme. – Scratch---Cat Sep 22 '19 at 7:20
• Here's the limerick, and the answer is literally (rot13) rvtugl-bar (qbhoyr qrsvavgvba). – boboquack Sep 22 '19 at 7:22

My try:

A visitor of cleaning station
(a person of male persuasion)
does darken his skin
(there is no point therein)
by a beam of the Sun's radiation
(5 3)

Definition
A visitor of cleaning station = MANTA RAY[1]

Wordplay
(a person of male persuasion) = MAN
does darken his skin = TANS
(there is no point therein) = remove N,S (compass points) -> TA
by a beam of the Sun's radiation = RAY

• is it ... ray? +1 – Omega Krypton Sep 22 '19 at 9:43
• Nice effort :) Alternative first line: "A sea dweller (fish, not crustacean)"... +1 – Stiv Sep 22 '19 at 10:47
• @Stiv That would certainly fit the metre better. Not sure about the surface reading, though. (Although it has to be said that some fish do in fact sunbathe.) – jafe Sep 22 '19 at 11:13

Though I'm not sure whether it's worthy of an answer, since the OP encouraged me to post it, there is the well-known mathematical limerick

$$\frac{(12+144+20)+\left(3 \cdot \sqrt{4}\right)}{7}+(5 \cdot 11)=9^2+0$$

or

A dozen, a gross, and a score
Plus three times the square root of four
Divided by seven
Plus five times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more.


which can be repurposed to make a cryptic clue by adding (6-3) on the end, with answer

EIGHTY-ONE (double definition)

though it's incredibly debatable whether this is really a cryptic clue (and, in the non-textual version, whether it is really a limerick).

• Nah, that's not a cryptic clue. It's a crossword clue, but not a cryptic one. Cryptic clues, at least for pedants like this community, have a stricter definition. – Rand al'Thor Sep 22 '19 at 8:38
• @Randal'Thor exactly why I claim it's incredibly debatable (for example, even if there are two parts which resolve to the answer, they're not substantially different, nor are they definitions), and why I posted as a comment. But the OP asked me to post an answer, so... – boboquack Sep 22 '19 at 9:34

I've never seen them before in the wild, but that doesn't mean you can't just make them up... For example here's a pair of cryptic limericks I just wrote:

A challenging type of cross word,
Whose clues border on the absurd.
Initia'ly perplex
Thoughtful intellects...
Called after, perhaps: "Oh, my word!"

(7)

Rhymed words with particular rhythm
(Often times nonsense within 'em):
A "green citrus fruit";
One "odd cakes" to boot;
Between: "centre for algorithm".

(9)

CRYPTIC
Def: "A challenging type of cross word, / Whose clues border on the absurd."
Initially P(erplex) T(houghtful) I(ntellects) C(alled) (placed after)
[Placed] after CRY (of which "Oh, my word" is an example of)

and:

LIMERICKS
Def: "Rhymed words with particular rhythm / (Often times nonsense within 'em)"
LIME (A green citrus fruit)
I (one) + odd C(a)K(e)S
With (algo)R(ithm) between

This is almost certainly too broad but I can't resist this sort of challenge and wish it could find a home here in some form, so am going to turn a blind eye...

• It's not a challenge. – Scratch---Cat Sep 22 '19 at 19:03
• @Scratch---Cat - I realise you're not posing a challenge directly, but when the answer to your question is certain to take the form "yes, and here's an example", how are you going to choose the "correct" answer? Given that you can't, you'll have to just choose the "best", which means it effectively becomes a challenge without you intending. – Alconja Sep 22 '19 at 23:31
• I figured when you italicized cryptic limerick before that I could guess what they were, but man the parsing on this one is brilliant — well done! – El-Guest Sep 23 '19 at 0:59
• I am not going to choose the best. – Scratch---Cat Sep 23 '19 at 0:59
• I'm asking them to find an existing one (such as in the Guardians). – Scratch---Cat Jan 12 at 7:21