Limerick (poetry)

This article is about the poetic form. For other uses of the name, see Limerick (disambiguation).

A limerick is a short, often humorous and ribald poem developed to a very specific structure.

Contents

1 Structure 2 History 2.1 Early examples 2.2 Edward Lear 2.3 Origin of the name 3 Well-known authors 4 Recurring themes 4.1 Ribald verses 4.2 Nantucket 4.3 Uttoxeter and Exeter 5 Spelling 5.1 Anti-limericks 5.2 Non-rhyme 5.3 Structure 6 Limericks in other languages than English 7 See also 8 External links

Structure

The rhyme scheme is usually aabba, with a rather rigid meter. The first, second, and fifth lines are three metrical feet; the third and fourth two metrical feet. The rhythm is usually considered an anapestic foot, two short syllables and then a long, the reverse of dactyl rhythm. However, many substitutions are common.

The first line traditionally introduces a person and a location, and usually ends with the name of the location, though sometimes with that of the person. A true limerick is supposed to have a kind of twist to it. This may lie in the final line, or it may lie in the way the rhymes are often intentionally tortured, or in both. Though not a strict requirement, the best limericks are usually those that additionally show some form of internal rhyme, often alliteration, sometimes assonance or another form of rhyme.

History

Early examples

Sections in poems following the limerick form can be found throughout known history, from the work of Greek classic poets to the first known English popular song, Sumer is icumen in (c. 1300) and the works of Shakespeare (Othello, King Lear, The Tempest and Hamlet all contain limericks within longer segments). The first deliberate creation to match limerick form is usually considered Tom o' Bedlam (c. 1600):

From the hag and hungry goblin

That into rags would rend thee

And the spirit that stands

by the naked man,

In the book of the moons defend yee.

The dactylic (long-short-short or 'tum-ti-ti') 'foot' or metric unit, on which the true limerick is based, goes back to classical Greece and is found in English poetry, usually of a humorous or satirical kind, from the middle thirteenth century - e.g. the political lyric Richard the Redeless, which begins (spelling modernised)

Sitteth all still and heark'neth to me!

By about 1500 this pattern was being applied in six-line stanzas which come very close to the limerick form. An early Tudor example, poking fun at the local cult of a Norfolk (U.K.) vicar who is said to have trapped the Devil in a boot, runs

Master John Shorne,

That blessèd man born,

For the ague to him we apply,

That juggleth with a boot;

I beshrew his heart-root

That will trust him, an it be I.

There is a very early example of the developed five-line form in the Cornish folksong Camborne Hill, which is supposed to commemorate Richard Trevithick's early experiments in steam-travel and should therefore date from about 1802:

Goin' up Camborne Hill, comin' down,

Goin' up Camborne Hill, comin' down,

The horses stood still,

The wheels went around,

Goin' up Camborne Hill, comin' down.

Edward Lear

Other examples can be discovered from the 18th century. The first book of limericks, though they were not yet named thus, is The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women (1820), followed by the Anecdotes and Adventures of Fifteen Gentlemen (1822). But the form was popularised by Edward Lear, who has been grandiloquently dubbed "The Poet Laureate of the Limerick", in his A Book of Nonsense (1845) and a later work (1872) on the same theme. In all Lear wrote 212 limericks, mostly aimed towards nonsense. In his time limericks accompanied an illustration on the same subject, and the final line of the limerick was a kind of conclusion, which usually was a variant of the first, ending in the same word. This is different from the punchline or twist of the modern limerick, that usually has a proper rhyme. Since Lear's limericks are the best-known examples of the classical limerick, and since these poems were not yet called "Limericks", some have retroactively named them Learics, as they are not true limericks in the modern sense of the word. An example:

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.)

Origin of the name

The origins of the actual word limerick is obscure. The first known occurrence is from May 1896; the OED first reports it in 1898. The name is often linked to an earlier form of nonsense verse which was traditionally followed by the refrain that ended "…come all the way up to Limerick?", Limerick being an Irish town. That the older refrain does not match the meter of the limerick has been used to attack this theory. A point in favour, however, is the fact that in other languages, limericks are indeed sung, with wordless (la-la) refrains between them that match a version of this text.

Well-known authors

Ogden Nash is renowned for humorous short poetry, and often used the limerick form:

There once was a miser named Clarence

Who Simonized both of his parents;

"The initial expense,"

he remarked, "is immense,

But it saves on the wearance and tearance."

For reasons of decency, many collections consist entirely of innocent examples. Amongst the exceptions are several collections by the science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov, who edited Lecherous Limericks (1975), More Lecherous Limericks (1976), Still More Lecherous Limericks (1977), Limericks Too Gross (1978) and A Grossery of Limericks (1981).

Among earlier writers of more serious literature who have indulged in limerick-writing is the 19th-century novelist and illustrator George du Maurier, who was responsible for this Anglo-French example:

Chaque pays a ses grands noms sonores;

Or, de tous ces défunts cockolores

Le moral Fénélon,

Michel-Ange, et Johnson

(Le Docteur) sont les plus awful bores.

Recurring themes

Ribald verses

Definitely a recurring theme is the indecent subjects of many limericks. It is often considered that the less innocent limericks are amongst the best, and the most common:

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.

Nantucket

The island of Nantucket has also been a recurring theme in limericks, including the following, which is likely the best-known of all poems in the form:

There once was a man from Nantucket

Who kept all of his cash in a bucket.

But his daughter, named Nan,

Ran away with a man

And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

The current popularity of "Nantucket" in limericks no doubt mostly stems from the possibility to rhyme it with obscenities. It has been suggested, though, that in the past another factor was the popularity of the limerick among whalers.

Uttoxeter and Exeter

Similarly Uttoxeter and Exeter have been used as the inspiration for hundreds of limericks:

There was a fair maiden of Exeter,

So pretty that guys craned their necks at her.

One was even so brave

as to take out and wave

The distinguishing mark of his sex at her.

Spelling

The limerick is often spelt to make the ending match in orthography as well as pronunciation, especially when the spelling of one of the words is bizarre:

There was a young curate of Salisbury

Whose manners were quite Halisbury-Scalisbury

He wandered round Hampshire

Without any pampshire

Till the Vicar compelled him to Warisbury

Note: Salisbury is known to locals as Sarum, Hampshire as Hants, giving:

There was a young curate of Sarum

Whose manners were quite harem-scarem (Halisbury-Scalisbury)

He wandered round Hants (Hampshire)

Without any pants (pampshire)

Till the Vicar compelled him to Wear'em (Warisbury)

By further contortion, this can even be extended to the beginning:

A bdellium bdiamond of beauty

Was bdisplayed in a shop in Bdjibouti.

I bought it, then came

A bdelicate bdame

I'm her suitor now, and she my suitee.

Anti-limericks

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

Non-rhyme

Some lead the listener into expectation of a rhyme, often indecent, which actually is not used.

There was a young lady from Bude

Who went for a swim in the lake

A man in a punt

Stuck an oar in her ear

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

Or,

There once was an athlete of Venice

Who liked to play matches of tennis

When a ball hit him hard

He went to a ward

Where a doctor did cut off his foot.

Another limerick, attributed to composer Arthur Sullivan, replaces the rhyme, with association:

There was a young man of St Bees

Who was stung in the arm by a wasp

They asked, "Does it hurt?"

He replied, "No it doesn't"

I'm glad that it wasn't a hornet

Structure

Others subvert the structure of the true limerick.

There was a young bard from Japan

Whose limericks never would scan.

When asked why this was,

He said 'It's because

I always try to get as many words in the last line as I possibly can.'

And,

A limerick fan from Australia

Regarded his work as a failure:

His verses were fine

Until the fourth line.

This is taken a stage further by this pair of verses:

There was a young man of Arnoux

Whose limericks stopped at line two

...and by extension...

There was a young man of Verdun

...which if completed would be a self-contradiction.

The third member of this pair would be the limerick about the young man from Saint Paul, which would be self-contradictory if it were told at all.

Limericks in other languages than English

Although limericks have been written in a great number of different languages, many of these suffer from the fact that the meter of the limerick does not adapt well to such languages as, for example, French or Latin. Good limericks can be written in languages that have a similar natural rhythm as English.

The following example is in Icelandic:

Þegar líkið er glaseygt, svo glampar í,

og í görnum er eitthvað, sem skvampar í,

enda nefbroddur rauður

-- þá er dóninn ei dauður --

heldur drekkur hann of mikið Campari.

A French example, from 1715:

On s'étonne ici que Caliste

Ait pris l'habit de Moliniste

Puisque cette jeune beauté

Ote à chacun sa liberté

N'est-ce pas une Janseniste?

And another French example:

Y avait un jeune homme de Dijon

Qui se foutait de toute religion.

Il a dit, "Quant à moi,

Je déteste les trois:

Le Père, et le Fils, et le Pigeon."

An example in Swedish, attributed to Hans Alfredsson :

Det var en ung dam ifrån Gränna

som stjärten så hårt kunde spänna

att hon i detta hål

kunde strypa en ål

och till och med vässa en penna

The dodoitsu is a short sometimes comic Japanese poem known as a Japanese limerick.

See also

• Clerihew

External links

Limericks Online:

• The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form (OEDILF)
• Limerick Savant Limerick news summaries
• Limericks by famous people
• Limericks by Richard Long
• Lear's Limericks retold A curious attempt to "provide some of Mr Lear's limericks with a little more punch in their final lines."
• Limericks for no particular occasion
• The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women
• Jarmo's TOAD (Topical Odes Almost Daily) Satirical limericks on the headlines of the day (UK-based)
• Jarmo's FROG (Fairly Random Odes Generally) Original limericks both crude and cerebral
• Limerick-Queen (in German and partly in English) Huge amount of limericks in good quality

Books available from Gutenberg:

• A book of nonsense