Limerick (poetry)

A limerick (/ˈlɪmərɪk/ LIM-ər-ik)^[1] is a form of verse that appeared in Limerick, County Limerick, Ireland in the early years of the 18th century.^[2] In combination with a refrain, it forms a limerick song, a traditional humorous drinking song often with obscene verses. It is written in five-line, predominantly anapestic and amphibrach^[3] trimeter with a strict rhyme scheme of AABBA, in which the first, second and fifth line rhyme, while the third and fourth lines are shorter and share a different rhyme.^[4]

It was popularized by Edward Lear in the 19th century,^[5] although he did not use the term. From a folkloric point of view, the form is essentially transgressive; violation of taboo is part of its function. According to Gershon Legman, who compiled the largest and most scholarly anthology, this folk form is always obscene^[6] and the exchange of limericks is almost exclusive to comparatively well-educated men. Women are figuring in limericks almost exclusively as "villains or victims". Legman dismissed the "clean" limerick as a "periodic fad and object of magazine contests, rarely rising above mediocrity". Its humour is not in the "punch line" ending but rather in the tension between meaning and its lack.^[7]

The following example is a limerick of unknown origin:

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.^[8]

^ "LIMERICK | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary". dictionary.cambridge.org. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
^ An interesting and highly esoteric verse in Limerick form is found in the diary of the Rev. John Thomlinson (1692–1761): 1717. Sept. 17th. One Dr. Bainbridge went from Cambridge to Oxon [Oxford] to be astronomy professor, and reading a lecture happened to say de Polis et Axis, instead of Axibus. Upon which one said, Dr. Bainbridge was sent from Cambridge,—to read lectures de Polis et Axis; but lett them that brought him hither, return him thither, and teach him his rules of syntaxis. From Six North Country Diaries, Publications of the Surtees Society, Vol. CXVIII for the year MCMX, p. 78. Andrews & Co., Durham, etc. 1910.
^ Cuddon, J.A. (1999). The Penguin dictionary of literary terms and literary theory (4. ed.). London [u.a.]: Penguin Books. p. 458. ISBN 978-0140513639.
^ Vaughn, Stanton (1904). Limerick Lyrics. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
^ Brandreth, page 108
^ Legman 1988, pp. x-xi.
^ Tigges, Wim. "The Limerick: The Sonnet of Nonsense?". Explorations in the Field of Nonsense. ed. Wim Tigges. 1987. page 117
^ Feinberg, Leonard. The Secret of Humor. Rodopi, 1978. ISBN 9789062033706. p102

[1] "LIMERICK | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary". dictionary.cambridge.org. Retrieved 2019-12-12.

[2] An interesting and highly esoteric verse in Limerick form is found in the diary of the Rev. John Thomlinson (1692–1761): 1717. Sept. 17th. One Dr. Bainbridge went from Cambridge to Oxon [Oxford] to be astronomy professor, and reading a lecture happened to say de Polis et Axis, instead of Axibus. Upon which one said, Dr. Bainbridge was sent from Cambridge,—to read lectures de Polis et Axis; but lett them that brought him hither, return him thither, and teach him his rules of syntaxis. From Six North Country Diaries, Publications of the Surtees Society, Vol. CXVIII for the year MCMX, p. 78. Andrews & Co., Durham, etc. 1910.

[3] Cuddon, J.A. (1999). The Penguin dictionary of literary terms and literary theory (4. ed.). London [u.a.]: Penguin Books. p. 458. ISBN 978-0140513639.

[4] Vaughn, Stanton (1904). Limerick Lyrics. Retrieved 6 October 2014.

[5] Brandreth, page 108

[6] Legman 1988, pp. x-xi.

[7] Tigges, Wim. "The Limerick: The Sonnet of Nonsense?". Explorations in the Field of Nonsense. ed. Wim Tigges. 1987. page 117

[8] Feinberg, Leonard. The Secret of Humor. Rodopi, 1978. ISBN 9789062033706. p102

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