On the German synth-pop band Alphaville's 1986 album "Afternoons in Utopia", this limerick is performed so that the word "night" is sung at the very beginning of the A side, and the rest of the limerick appears at the end of the B side.
The version on the record is slightly different than the one above:
night....
There was a young lady named Bright
whose speed was much faster, much faster than light
she departed one day
in a relative way
and returned on the previous -
Alphaville credits a band called Albert and the Heart of Gold as the lyricists for "Lady Bright", but the limerick was originally written by Arthur Reginald Buller, (1874-1944). It appeared in the magazine Punch on December 19th, 1923. I have seen his version written as:
There was a young lady named Bright
Who could travel far faster than light;
She set off one day,
In a relative way,
And returned on the previous night.
To her friends, said the Bright one, in chatter;
"I have learned something new about
matter.
My
speed was so great
Much increased was my weight,
Yet I failed to become any fatter!"
While I was looking up the author of this poem, I came across another one, anonymous:
There was a young man name of Sneed
Who once reached an infinite speed.
He went into a spin
at committing the sin
Of breaking Einsteinian creed.