National Poetry Month, day sixteen

Wow, we're now on the back half of the month! So a brief post today about that wonderful form, usually used to comic (and sometimes bawdy) effect, the limerick.

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

Or:

The limerick’s an art form complex
Whose contents run chiefly to sex;
It’s famous for virgins
And masculine urgin’s
And vulgar erotic effects.

When I was in junior high, I suspect that all my male classmates had committed to memory a limerick beginning with "There once was a man from Nantucket".

Here's just one that I found that made me happy:

There once was a young lady named bright
Whose speed was much faster than light
She set out one day
In a relative way
And returned on the previous night.

A nerdy limerick! I find this pleasing on multiple levels.

I wonder: has any limerick ever been composed that was also a truly great work of poetry?