Lyr Req: Humpty Dumpty (Ballard of Persse O'Reilly

Subject: LRR. REQ. HUMPTY DUMPTY
From: GUEST,dBranno
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 03:53 AM

It's the James Joyce thing I'm looking for
"Have you heard of one Humpty Dumpty
How he fell with a roll and a rumble..."
The dubliners recorded it years ago, some of it I remember, but I know there's more! Can anyone help? It's no' on the Digitrad.
Thanks,   Dave Branno

Subject: RE: LRR. REQ. HUMPTY DUMPTY
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 04:33 AM

http://poeticnites.com/famouspoets/joyce.html

You'll find it on here, sorry it isn't blue.

Subject: RE: LRR. REQ. HUMPTY DUMPTY
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 04:35 AM

It is called 'The Ballard of Persse O'Reilly'.......it is on the above link.

Subject: RE: LRR. REQ. HUMPTY DUMPTY
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 07:43 PM

I was once at a songwriting workshop where our challenge was to write new versions of Humpty Dumpty: we came up with some crackers, all in about 10 minutes, e.g.
Humpty Dumpty sat on his erse
Writing verses exceedingly terse
Expressing his feelings everyone for to tell
Before he lost courage and returned to his shell.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a cat
His mammy said "Ye dinnae dae that"
"Too right "says pussy, "You're nae sae dumb"
And she bit Humpty Dumpty right on his bum.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a chair
Humpty Dumpty tore oot his hair
That's why he's sae baldie ye ken
No becouse he wis laid by a hen.

(You might possibly guess that these were written in Scotland!)
That's just 3 out of 9 verses: if anyone should want more I'll try to add them later!
TB

Subject: RE: LRR. REQ. HUMPTY DUMPTY
From: Azizi
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 11:19 PM

Tattie,
I loved the rewrites! Please post more. By the way, what does
"crackers" mean? good? funny? creative?

Subject: RE: LRR. REQ. HUMPTY DUMPTY
From: GUEST,dBranno
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 01:29 AM

Thanks, Milk monitor. I found the site and now have the whole catastrophe, to my great amusement, and that of my 20 year old son, who also takes great delight in such wordplay. Does ANYONE know what it's about? Perhaps there's an echo of burgermeister Finnegan (of the stutterin' hand).

Subject: RE: LRR. REQ. HUMPTY DUMPTY
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 07:34 AM

dBranno someone somewhere must have studied and tried to interpret the imagery, but not me!

Joyce is one of the most inaccessible (to me) writers I have read. My shortcoming, not his.

Your Humpty Dumpty tale is in his short story collection The Dubliners, which I ploughed through, and I found the Ballard of P.O'R to be the light relief moment I had been hoping for all the way through the book. You're right on the word play.

Joyce nigh on invented his own language. The other stories in the book are nothing like P.O'R, but well worth a read, each one focussing on the side of Dublin that made him leave the place.