Limerick (poetry)

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

History

Origin of the name

The origin 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.

Related Topics:
1896 - OED - 1898 - Nonsense verse - Limerick

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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):

Related Topics:
Sumer is icumen in - Tom o' Bedlam

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:From the hag and hungry goblin

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:That into rags would rend thee

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::And the spirit that stands

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::by the naked man,

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:In the book of the moons defend yee.

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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:

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:There was a Young Person of Smyrna

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:Whose grandmother threatened to burn her;

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

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:You incongruous old woman of Smyrna!'

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(Lear's limericks were often typeset in three lines or four lines.)

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