Limerick (poetry)

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

Well-known authors

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

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:There once was a miser named Clarence

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:Who Simonized both of his parents;

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::"The initial expense,"

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::he remarked, "is immense,

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:But it saves on the wearance and tearance."

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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).

Related Topics:
Isaac Asimov - Lecherous Limericks

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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:

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:Chaque pays a ses grands noms sonores;

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:Or, de tous ces défunts cockolores

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::Le moral Fénélon,

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::Michel-Ange, et Johnson

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:(Le Docteur) sont les plus awful bores.

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In 1970, New York's Brandywine Press published The Limerick, a canonical work of bawdy limericks compiled by folklore scholar Gershon Legman (1917-1999), which had previously been printed only in Europe. This was followed by The New Limerick in 1977 (later re-released under the title More Limericks.) The former volume contained more than 1700 verses, the latter about 2700.

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