|
 The derivation of
the word "limerick" is a bit obscure, even for the great
Oxford English Dictionary. After reminding us that Limerick is the chief
town in the Irish county of that name, the OED continues:
Said to be from a
custom at convivial parties, according to which each member sang an
extemporized 'nonsense verse', which was followed by a chorus containing
the words "Will you come up to Limerick?".
H.W. Fowler
helpfully gives us a specification of the limerick's form:
A nonsense verse
in the metre popularized by Edward Lear in his Book of Nonsense (1846),
of which the following is an example:
|
There
was a young lady of Wilts,
Who walked up to
Scotland on stilts;
When they said it
was shocking
To show so much
stocking,
She answered,
'Then what about kilts?'
|
But although Lear
started it all, as originally used by him the limerick's last line was
almost always a variant of the first or second, not a completely
different and startling idea as today's version has it. Lear's usual
format — there are a handful of exceptions — goes more like this:
I understand that
Kingsley Amis took a disdainful view of this anticlimactic repetition in
Lear, but according to Quentin Blake, editor of a recent collection of
all Lear's nonsense, Lear "intuitively . . . [knew] what was best
for him". The more modern version Blake describes in these words:
The traditional
limerick, as it went on to develop, comes to a smart conclusion which is
clinched by the final line. There's often a momentary twinge of
anticipation as you sense the rhyme ahead — an effect which the dirty
limerick in particular is glad to make use of. Lear forgoes that —
it's not his kind of humour at all.
After all, Lear was
writing for children.
You'll have noted
already that the third line is sometimes given as a single line with an
internal rhyme, sometimes as two separate lines. The rhythmic effect
remains the same, however.
What follows are
some limericks concocted by a couple of non-Irish Bikwilians, two from
landoc and three from NonesuCH.
Furthermore, I have been requested by our editor to encourage other
readers to submit as many limericks as they like to Down Limerick
Lane. For legal reasons, better keep them original.
|
Did you spot the
error in the above article?
We make amends
here. |
|
|
A Tasmanian, at home in Tasmania
Met a Scotsman, on tour of Australia:
“When I ask of your region,
You say you’re Glaswegian,
So shouldn’t you come from Glasmania?”
If you come from the town of Newcastle,
Novocastrian’s your tag on the parcel;
If you come from Enzed,
Be heppy and gled,
Novozealian as a name is an astle.*
(* With apologies to a
well-known opening batsman.)
A young lady who came from St. Peters
Had a girth that was measured in metres;
When viewed from the rear
It was patently clear
She was one of the world’s greatest eaters.
A young secretary buffing her nails
Said, “You know you can bank on the Wales;”
My boy-friend’s a teller,
A lovely young feller,
My interest in him never fails.
A chap from my old alma mater
Had trouble with personal data;
As he went down the aisle
Someone wiped out his file,
And left him persona non grata.
A fractions young child on the plane
Kept shrieking Again and AGAIN.
I said, “I know it’s not nice,
But can’t we pack him in ice,
And salvage what’s left of my brain?”
|
|
