Limerick
A limerick is a unique form of poetry characterized by its humorous and often exaggerated storytelling style, typically involving absurd situations. Named after the city of Limerick, Ireland, this poetic form has roots that may trace back to soldiers reciting verses during their marches or breaks, creating a lively oral tradition. Limericks consist of five lines with a specific rhyming scheme: the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other, while the third and fourth lines share a different rhyme. They are composed in anapestic meter, emphasizing the third syllable in each three-syllable unit.
Though limericks can contain risqué themes, many popular examples, especially those popularized by Edward Lear in his 1846 collection "A Book of Nonsense," are tailored for children. Over the years, various authors, including notable figures like Shakespeare and Yeats, have contributed to the limerick genre, often using it for playful wordplay or clever exchanges. While they boast a rich history, limericks are primarily viewed as lighthearted entertainment rather than serious literature.
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Limerick
The limerick is a form of poetry that has existed for hundreds of years. Limericks are meant to tell a story, usually about a person, in an exaggerated or absurd situation. The exaggeration is meant to make the limerick funny. Although limericks are often risqué in nature, the more popular limericks are written for children.
Limericks are not always taken seriously as an art form, but their poetic arrangement is actually quite strict. A limerick must have five lines. Of these, lines 1, 2, and 5 must rhyme with each other. Lines 3 and 4 must rhyme with each other, as well. Limericks are also written in anapestic meter, which means that in each three-syllable word or phrase, the emphasis is always on the third syllable. Lines 1, 2, and 5 each contain three anapestics, or eight to ten syllables, and lines 3 and 4 contain two anapestics, or five to seven syllables.
Overview
The limerick poem is named for the city of Limerick, Ireland, where the form is often thought to have originated. Historians believe the short, humorous poems were likely invented by soldiers and recited aloud while they marched or rested. The better limericks were repeated and passed around, often recited in taverns as a form of entertainment, and all with the tag line, "Will you come up to Limerick?" at the end of each one. However, because early limericks have been found in the French language, some scholars speculate that Irish soldiers actually borrowed the idea from the French after spending time there in the early eighteenth century.
Although some limericks were quite vulgar, the most popular of them were written for children. The artist Edward Lear published A Book of Nonsense in 1846. This collection of illustrated limericks for children was an immediate success. The following limerick may be Lear’s best-known example of the art form:
There was an old man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared!
Two owls and a hen,
Four larks and a wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!"
As in this example, most of Lear's limericks repeated the last word in the first line as the last word in the final line. Later writers changed this form by using a new rhyming word at the end the poem. Lear followed Lear's first volume of poems with several more, and children today still enjoy his nonsense limericks.
Other authors have penned limericks for their own amusement. Some have written limericks as a duel of words to see who could use the form more cleverly. The latter case involved Isaac Asimov, the author of more than 200 books, and John Ciardi, an award-winning poet and critic.
Even William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Rudyard Kipling, and William Shakespeare are credited with writing limericks. In this example from Shakespeare’s Othello, Act II, Scene III, the character Iago sings
And let me the canakin clink, clink;
And let me the canakin clink
A soldier's a man;
A life's but a span;
Why, then, let a soldier drink.
Even with such an illustrious history, however, limericks should not be confused with literature. They are meant to be funny and clever, not educational.
Bibliography
Asimov, Isaac, and John Ciardi. Limericks. New York: Random House, 1978. Print.
<http://www.amazon.com/Limericks-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0517208822/ref=pd‗sim‗b‗4?ie=UTF8&refRID=04PVZZC7P52SS36K5KMZ#reader‗0517208822>
Lear, Edward. The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense. London: Penguin, 2001. Print.
<http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Verse-Other-Nonsense/dp/0142002275/ref=sr‗1‗1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404754073&sr=1-1&keywords=edward+lear#reader‗0142002275>
"Poems and Poets." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2014. Web. 7 Jul. 2014.
<http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175025>
Rabbitts, Nick. "Book on History of the 'Limerick.'" Limerick Leader. Limerick City Council, 2014. Web. 7 Jul. 2014.
<http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/limericks%2008.pdf>