A limerick is a five-line poem with a strict form, originally popularized in English by Edward Lear. Limericks are frequently witty or humorous, and sometimes obscene with humorous intent. Limerick (poetry) Towns and cities named Limerick Limerick in the Republic of Ireland is one of the cities in Ireland Limerick Township, Pennsylvania — see also Limerick nuclear power plant Limerick, Maine and New Limerick, Maine, United States of America Limerick Township, Ontario, near Limerick Lake, Canada County Limerick Earl of... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Edward Lear, 1812-1888 Eagle Owl, Edward Lear, 1837 Another Edward Lear owl, in his more familiar style Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an artist, illustrator and writer known for his nonsensical poetry and his limericks, a form which he popularised. ...

The following example of a limerick is of anonymous origin.

The limerick packs laughs anatomical

In space that is quite economical,

But the good ones I've seen

So seldom are clean,

And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

Gershon Legman, who compiled the largest and most scholarly anthology, held that the true limerick, as a folk form, is always obscene, and cites (x-xi) similar opinions by Arnold Bennett and George Bernard Shaw, describing the clean limerick as a periodic fad and object of magazine contests, rarely rising above mediocrity. That is to say, from a folkloric point of view, the form is essentially transgressive; violation of taboo is part of its function. Gershon Legman (November 2, 1917 – February 23, 1999), American folklorist and social critic, was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania to parents of Eastern or Central European Jewish descent. ... Arnold Bennett, British novelist Enoch Arnold Bennett (May 27, 1867-March 27, 1931) was a British novelist. ... George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856–2 November 1950) was a world-renowned Irish author. ...

Form

A limerick has five lines, with three metrical feet in the first, second, and fifth lines and two metrical feet in the third and fourth lines. A variety of types of metrical foot can be used, but the most typical are the amphibrach (a stressed syllable between two unstressed syllables) and the anapaest (two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable).^{[citation needed]} The rhyme scheme is usually AABBA. In verse, many meters use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem. ... An amphibrac is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... For the computer operating system, see Syllable (operating system). ... An anapaest or anapest, also called antidactylus, is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry and song. ...

The first line of a limerick traditionally introduces a person and a place, with the place appearing at the end of the first line and therefore establishing the rhyme scheme for the second and fifth lines. In early limericks, the last line was often essentially a repeat of the first line, although this is no longer customary.

Within the genre, ordinary speech stress is often distorted in the first line, and may be regarded as a feature of the form: "There WAS a young MAN from the COAST;" "There ONCE was a GIRL from DeTROIT..." Legman (xliv) takes this as a convention whereby prosody is violated simultaneously with propriety. Exploitation of geographical names, especially exotic ones, is also common, and has been seen as invoking memories of geography lessons in order to subvert the decorum taught in the schoolroom; Legman finds that the exchange of limericks is almost exclusive to comparatively well-educated males (women figuring in limericks almost exclusively as "villains or victims," according to Legman). The most prized limericks incorporate a kind of twist, which may be revealed in the final line, or may lie in the way the rhymes are often intentionally tortured, or both. Many limericks additionally show some form of internal rhyme, alliteration or assonance, or some element of wordplay. Some examples exploit the strict form of the limerick to lead the listener into expecting a particular conclusion, particularly one that would be obscene or shocking, and then derive humour from cunningly avoiding the expected words -- In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme which occurs within a single line of verse. ... Alliteration is the repetition of a leading consonant sound in a phrase. ... Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in non-rhyming words, for example Do you like blue?. Here the oo sound is repeated within the sentence. ... Word play is a literary technique in which the nature of the words used themselves become part of the subject of the work. ...

There once was a lady from Bude

Who went swimming one day in the lake.

A man in a punt

Stuck his pole in the water

And said "You can't swim here -- it's private."

Verses in limerick form are sometimes combined with a refrain to form a limerick song, a traditional humorous drinking song often with obscene verses. A refrain (from the Old French refraindre to repeat, likely from Vulgar Latin refringere) is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the chorus of a song. ... The Limerick   is a traditional humorous drinking song with many off-color, if not obscene, verses. ... A drinking song is a song sung while drinking, that is, consuming alcohol. ...

Origin of the name

The origin of the actual name limerick for this type of poem is obscure. Its usage was first documented in England in 1898 (New English Dictionary) and in America in 1902.^[1] It is generally taken to be a reference to the County of Limerick in Ireland (particularly the Maigue Poets), and may derive from an earlier form of nonsense verse parlour game which traditionally included a refrain that ended "Come all the way up to Limerick?" (referring to Limerick, Ireland). Statistics Province: Munster County Town: Limerick Code: LK Area: 2,686 km² Population (2006) 183,863 (including Limerick City); 131,303 (without Limerick City) Website: www. ... Nonsense verse is a form of poetry, normally composed for humorous effect, which is intentionally and overtly paradoxical, silly, witty, whimsical or just plain strange. ...

History

The limerick form can be traced back several hundred years. The oldest recorded poem fitting the metrical pattern is from Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Aquinas redirects here. ...

Sit vitiorum meorum evacuatio

Concupiscentae et libidinis exterminatio,

Caritatis et patientiae,

Humilitatis et obedientiae,

Omniumque virtutum augmentatio.

Translated:

Let my viciousness be emptied,

Desire and lust banished,

Charity and patience,

Humility and obedience,

And all the virtues increased.

Following this early example, the limerick has a long association with humour and satire. The poem "The doubt of future foes", composed by Elizabeth I of England, has a metrical structure which anticipates the limerick, although the rhyme scheme is incomplete, as the following couplet shows. Elizabeth I redirects here. ...

The doubt of future foes exiles my present joy,

And wit me warns to shun such snares as threaten mine annoy;

The verses of Tom o' Bedlam, a multi-stanza poem in limerick form dating from circa 1600, has developed the internal rhyme between lines three and four. Tom O Bedlam is the name of a critically acclaimed[1] anonymous poem written circa 1600 (it can be definitely dated back to 1634[1]) about a Bedlamite. ...

The following example in French is cited by Boswell in his Life of Johnson as having appeared in 1716 and referring to the 'fierce contentions' concerning the nature of free will by the followers of Molina and Jansen. It exhibits the full AABBA rhyme scheme of the modern limerick. James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck and 1st Baronet (October 29, 1740 - May 19, 1795) was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... In English literature, The Life of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D. was a biography of Dr. Samuel Johnson by James Boswell, published in 1791. ... Free-Will is a Japanese independent record label founded in 1986. ...

On s'étonne ici que Caliste

Ait pris l'habit de Moliniste

Puisque cette jeune beauté

Ôte à chacun sa liberté

N'est-ce pas une Janséniste?

An approximate translation follows. Caliste, Boswell relates, was a young lady who appeared at a masquerade habillée en Jésuite (dressed as a Jesuit).

'Tis such a surprise that Caliste

Should dress up as a Molinist,

For her beauty still

Takes away our free will:

Is she not thus a Jansenist?

In Mary Cooper's 1744 book, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, the following poem in limerick form appears and is the first example in print of an illustrated limerick.^[2] It remains well-known today, in various forms. Molinism, named after 16th Century Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina, is a religious doctrine which attempts to reconcile the omniscience of God with human free will. ... Jansenism was a branch of Catholic thought tracing itself back to Cornelius Otto Jansen (1585 – 1638), a Flemish theologian. ...

Hickere, Dickere Dock,

A Mouse ran up the Clock,

The Clock Struck One,

The Mouse fell down,

And Hickere Dickere Dock.

The limerick form first came to wider prominence in English in the early 19th century. The first book of limericks, though they were not yet named thus, was The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women, illustrated by as many engravings: exhibiting their Principal Eccentricities and Amusements (1820, author unknown, published by John Harris and Son). This was soon followed by Anecdotes and Adventures of Fifteen Gentlemen and Anecdotes and Adventures of Fifteen Young Ladies (both published by John Marshall, illustrated by Robert Cruikshank, and probably authored by Richard Scrafton Sharpe^[3]).

Edward Lear

A Book of Nonsense (ca. 1875 James Miller edition) by Edward Lear

The limerick form was popularized by Edward Lear in his first Book of Nonsense (1845) and a later work (1872) on the same theme. In all Lear wrote 212 limericks, mostly nonsense verse. It was customary at the time for limericks to accompany an absurd illustration of the same subject, and for the final line of the limerick to be a kind of conclusion, usually a variant of the first line ending in the same word. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 519 pixel Image in higher resolution (2100 × 1362 pixel, file size: 446 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I, John Patrick, own the copyright to this image. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 519 pixel Image in higher resolution (2100 × 1362 pixel, file size: 446 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I, John Patrick, own the copyright to this image. ... Edward Lear, 1812-1888 Eagle Owl, Edward Lear, 1837 Another Edward Lear owl, in his more familiar style Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an artist, illustrator and writer known for his nonsensical poetry and his limericks, a form which he popularised. ... Nonsense verse is a form of poetry, normally composed for humorous effect, which is intentionally and overtly paradoxical, silly, witty, whimsical or just plain strange. ...

The following is an example of one of Edward Lear's limericks.

There was a Young Person of Smyrna

Whose grandmother threatened to burn her;

But she seized on the cat, and said, 'Granny, burn that!

You incongruous old woman of Smyrna!'

(Lear's limericks were often typeset in three lines or four lines, according to the space available under the accompanying picture.)

Popular Culture

One instance of the use of the Limerick in popular culture is in the Limerick dungeon, on the free online MMORPG, The Kingdom of Loathing. Kingdom of Loathing (KoL) is a humorous, browser-based, multiplayer role playing game designed and operated by Asymmetric Publications, including creator Zack Jick Johnson and writer Josh Mr. ...

Variations

Spelling and pronunciation

The idiosyncratic link between spelling and pronunciation in the English language is explored in this Scottish example. Bear in mind that the name 'Menzies' is pronounced MING-iss (IPA: /ˈmɪŋɪs/). This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... Sir Walter Menzies Campbell, CBE, QC (born 22 May 1941), commonly known as Ming Campbell, is a British politician and retired sprinter. ...

A lively young damsel named Menzies

Inquired: "Do you know what this thenzies?"

Her aunt, with a gasp,

Replied: "It's a wasp,

And you're holding the end where the stenzies."^[4]

Anti-limericks

There is a sub-genre of poems that take the twist and apply it to the limerick itself. These are sometimes called anti-limericks.

The following example, of unknown origin, subverts the structure of the true limerick by changing the number of syllables in the lines.

There was a young man from Japan

Whose limericks never would scan.

When asked why this was,

He answered "because

I always try to fit as many syllables into the last line as ever possibly I can."

The following example subverts the structure of the true limerick by changing the number of lines.

There once was a man from the sticks

Who liked to compose limericks.

But he failed at the sport,

For he wrote 'em too short.

The following example, attributed to W.S. Gilbert, follows the meter of a limerick but deliberately breaks the rhyme scheme, in a parody of a limerick by Lear. Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (November 18, 1836 - May 29, 1911) was a British dramatist and librettist best known for his operatic collaborations with the composer Arthur Sullivan. ...

There was an old man of St. Bees,

Who was stung in the arm by a wasp;

When they asked, "Does it hurt?"

He replied, "No, it doesn't,

But I thought all the while 't was a Hornet."^[5]

See also

• Chastushka (Russian form with similar traits)
• Clerihew
• Dixon Lanier Merritt's famous limerick about pelicans
• There once was a man from Nantucket

Chastushka (часту́шка), a type of traditional Russian poetry, is a single quatrain in trochaic tetrameter with an abab or abcb rhyme scheme. ... A Clerihew (or clerihew) is a very specific kind of humorous verse, typically with the following properties: The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of a well-known persons name The verse is humorous and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; but it... Dixon Lanier Merritt (1879 - 1972) was a poet and humorist. ... There once was a man from Nantucket is the opening line for many limericks and is among the most familiar opening lines in poetry. ...

References

• Cray, Ed. The Erotic Muse: American Bawdy Songs (University of Illinois, 1992).
• "Jones, Dave E." A Collection of Sea Songs and Ditties from the Stores of Dave E. Jones. No publisher. No date (1928). Unpaginated.
• Legman, Gershon. The Limerick NY: Bell, 1964;1969. Reissue Random House, 1988.
• Legman, Gershon. The Horn Book. (New York: University Press, 1964).
• Reuss, Richard A. An Annotated Field Collection of Songs From the American College Student Oral Tradition (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Masters Thesis, 1965).

Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Lists of Limericks:

• Modern Limericks on Today's News
• Daily Limericks skewing politics and celebrity
• The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form (OEDILF)
• Limericks by famous people
• DeepThought LimericksA collection of limericks submitted and rated by the public
• Newsmericks News & Views in limerick form
• David Morin's physics limericks, from his mechanics textbook used for the advanced introductory Harvard physics course, Physics 16
• alt.jokes.limericks (AJL) A bawdy Usenet Limerick group
• The Jim McWilliam Collection Over 95,000 Limericks
• LimerickDB collection submitted by the public

Website dedicated to The Pearl: The Pearl online The Pearl was a collection of erotic tales that were published in London between 1879 to 1880, when they were forced to shut down by the authorities for publishing rude and obscene literature. ...

Books available from Project Gutenberg: Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. ...

• A Book of Nonsense

Limerick Bibliographies:

• Deex, Arthur. A link to Arthur Deex's comprehensive annotated Limerick Bibliography
• Dilcher, Karl The Karl Dilcher bibliography of limerick books.