Limericks
Limericks have five lines and a rhyming scheme of AABBA. The first two and the last lines have eight to ten syllables each and rhyme together. The middle two lines have five to seven syllables and rhyme with each other.
Limericks first appeared in the early 18th century. They were frequently men’s obscene humorous drinking songs. Their contemporary equivalent would probably be bawdy rugby songs. (Other sports may be included!)
The
following is an anonymous limerick which is not coarse:
The
limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space
that is quite economical,
But the
good ones I’ve seen
So seldom
are clean
And the
clean ones so seldom are comical.
The next
one is also anonymous and fairly innocent:
The thoughts
of the rabbit on sex
Are seldom,
if ever, complex;
For a
rabbit in need
Is a
rabbit indeed.
And does just as a person expects.
They were popularised in the 19th century by Edward Lear, though his limericks were not lewd and were written and illustrated to entertain children. It’s easy to assume that most of the limericks that are heard were composed by him. That is the mistake I made about the young lady who rode on the tiger. It led me to wonder when the first limericks were written.
It has been suggested that St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) wrote the first one in Latin in the 13th century, though it seems to be more of a prayer than a joke.
Sit vitiorum
meorum evacuatio
Concupiscentae
et libidinis exterminatio,
Caritatis
et patientiae,
Humilitaris
et obedientiae,
Omniumque
virtutum augmentatio.
It was translated approximately by Fred Hornaday (1973-present) as:
To circumvent
brimstone and fire
Expelling
unsav’ry desire
I piously
pray
And devoutly
obey
As my soul soars progressively higher.
James V. Schall, S.J. (1928-2019) was an American writer, philosopher, and teacher who wrote a limerick encapsulating the philosophy of Aquinas.
There
once was a Jesuit knight
Who proved
with his logic air-tight
That all
of infinity’s
Touched by
divinity
Starting with ‘Let there be light.’
This verse form was not known as limerick to Edward Lear. The name seems to derive from a parlour game played in Limerick in Ireland in which the refrain asks ‘Will (or won’t) you come up to Limerick?’
There is
a plaque in Limerick, in County Limerick which says:
The Limerick
is furtive and mean
You must
keep her in close quarantine,
Or she sneaks
up the slums
And promptly
becomes
Disorderly
drunk and obscene.
Writing limericks can be a lot of fun and there are many examples of different forms.
A H Reginald Buller (1874-1944) was a British Canadian botanist and mycologist who wrote the following famous scientific limerick called Relativity:
There was a young lady named Bright,
Whose speed
was far faster than light;
She set
out one day,
In a relative
way,
And returned on the previous night.
Some writers
set out to deliberately flout the ‘guidelines.’
There was
a young man from Japan
Whose limericks
never would scan,
And when
they asked why,
He said, ‘I
do try!
But when I get to the last line I try to fit in as many words as I can.’
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) was an American writer and polymath, acclaimed as one of the finest writers of his day.
God’s
plan made a hopeful beginning,
But man
spoiled his chances by sinning.
We trust
that the story
Will end
in God’s glory,
But at present the other side’s winning.
To finish, here is a very clever limerick created by Leigh Mercer (1893-1977) a man who indulged in wordplay and puzzles.
12 + 144 + 20 + 3√4/7 + (5 x 11) = 9²+ 0
It reads as
follows:
A dozen,
a gross, and a score
Plus
three times the square root of four
Divided
by seven
Plus five
times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more.
