Limerick (poetry)

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

Spelling

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

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:There was a young curate of Salisbury

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:Whose manners were quite Halisbury-Scalisbury

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::He wandered round Hampshire

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::Without any pampshire

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:Till the Vicar compelled him to Warisbury

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

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:There was a young curate of Sarum

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

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::He wandered round Hants (Hampshire)

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::Without any pants (pampshire)

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

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

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:A bdellium bdiamond of beauty

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:Was bdisplayed in a shop in Bdjibouti.

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::I bought it, then came

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::A bdelicate bdame

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

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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.

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Non-rhyme

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

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:There was a young lady from Bude

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:Who went for a swim in the lake

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::A man in a punt

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::Stuck an oar in her ear

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

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Or,

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:There once was an athlete of Venice

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:Who liked to play matches of tennis

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::When a ball hit him hard

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::He went to a ward

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:Where a doctor did cut off his foot.

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

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:There was a young man of St Bees

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:Who was stung in the arm by a wasp

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::They asked, "Does it hurt?"

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::He replied, "No it doesn't"

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:I'm glad that it wasn't a hornet

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Structure

Others subvert the structure of the true limerick.

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:There was a young bard from Japan

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:Whose limericks never would scan.

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::When asked why this was,

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::He said 'It's because

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

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Similarly,

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:A decrepit old gas man named Peter,

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:While hunting around for the meter,

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:Touched a leak with his light.

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:He arose out of sight,

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:And, as anyone can see by reading this, he also destroyed the meter.

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And,

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:A limerick fan from Australia

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:Regarded his work as a failure:

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::His verses were fine

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::Until the fourth line.

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

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:There was a young man of Arnoux

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:Whose limericks stopped at line two

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...and by extension...

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:There was a young man of Verdun

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

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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.

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