How do I parse this phrase from a limerick?
This is a limerick I've taken from "The Wordsworth Book of Limericks".
It's published in this form in many other books and also all over the internet.
To his bride said the lynx-eyed detective,
"Can it be that my eyesight's defective?
Has your east tit the least bit
The best of your west tit?
Or is it a trick of perspective?"
I'm having trouble parsing the lines in bold.
Does "the least bit" mean "slightly" here? Or maybe "has" means "does … have?" Or "bit" is the past participle of "bite"?
None of these readings make any sense to me.
What does this phrase mean?
Solution 1:
I think the line break between the 3rd and 4th lines both makes the sentence difficult to read and that difficulty/ambiguity is a part of the humor.
- has your east tit: is your east tit
- the least bit the best: a little larger/longer
- of your west tit: than your west tit