Tags
Edward Lear, Gershon Legman, illustrations, Lewis Carroll, Limericks, Literary Nonsense, Nonsense Devices, Quebec, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Aquinas
A Book of Nonsense (ca. 1875 James Miller edition) by Edward Lear
Definition
A limerick (see Wikipedia) is a
- five-line poem.
- Its meter is predominantly anapestic (ta-ta-TUM).
- Its rhyme scheme is AABBA.
- The first, second and fifth lines (A) are usually longer than the third and fourth.
- It’s intent is humorous.
- Limericks are probably named after the Irish County of Limerick
- The word ‘limerick’ was first used in St John, New Brunswick
There was a young rustic named Mallory, (A)
who drew but a very small salary. (A)
When he went to the show, (B)
his purse made him go (B)
to a seat in the uppermost gallery. (A)
Tune: Won’t you come to Limerick.
The First Limerick: Vice and Virtue
- Thomas Aquinas
- Vitiorum/virtutum
The oldest attested limerick is a Latin prayer by Thomas Aquinas dating back to the 13th century.
Sit vitiorum meorum evacuatio
Concupiscentae et libidinis exterminatio,
Caritatis et patientiae,
Humilitatis et obedientiae,
Omniumque virtutum augmentatio.
See The Lion & the Cardinal, by Daniel Mitsui
http://www.danielmitsui.com/hieronymus/index.blog/1397896/thomas-aquinas-invented-the-limerick/
limericks Cont’d
- Edward Lear
- Lewis Carroll
The form appeared in England in the early years of the 18th century and was popularized by:
- Edward Lear (12 or 13 May 1812 – 29 January 1888), but Lear did not use the term ‘limerick.’
- Lear’s Book of Nonsense was published in 1846. A Book of Nonsense is Project Gutenberg [EBook #982].
- and by Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass).
- Lear wrote: “There was an old man of Quebec”
Limericks Compiled
- Gershon Legman compiled the “largest and most scholarly edition” of limericks: The New Limerick: 2750 Unpublished Examples, American and British (New York, 1977, ISBN 0-517-53091-0)
Children’s Literature
- Lewis Carroll (mentioned above)
- Walter Crane, illustrator
- John Tenniel, illustrator
Limericks are associated with children’s literature.
The Baby’s Own Aesop, illustrated by Walter Crane (Gutenberg [EBook #25433])
John Tenniel‘s depiction of the nonsense creatures in Carroll‘s Jabberwocky. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Literary Nonsense
- Limericks are a form of literary nonsense.
- The comic text features literary nonsense (i.e. Molière‘s Latin & Turkish)
For a list of authors who use or have used literary nonsense, click on literary nonsense (Wikipedia).
Nonsense Device: The Twist
A clever twist makes for a spirited limerick. But never would I have suspected that the great Rudyard Kipling would have used a “small boy of Quebec” to give one of his limericks its rather naïve, but charming twist.
A LIMERICK
There was a small boy of Quebec,
Who was buried in snow to his neck;
When they said. “Are you friz?”
He replied, “Yes, I is—
But we don’t call this cold in Quebec.”
Rudyard Kipling
[EBook #19993]
RELATED ARTICLE
- La Fontaine’s Fables Compiled & Walter Crane, 2nd Edition (2 September 2014)
Sources and Resources
- Wikipedia: Limerick and Literary Nonsense
- Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (Gutenberg [EBook #19033])
- Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll (Gutenberg [EBook #12])
- The Baby’s Own Aesop, illustrated by Walter Crane (Gutenberg [EBook #25433])
- A Book of Nonsense, Walter Lear (Gutenberg [EBook #982])
- Childhood’s Favorite and Fairy Stories, 1927 (copyright obtained in 1909), edited by Hamilton Wright Mabie, Edward Every Hale, William Byron Forbus, Gutenberg [EBook #19993]
- Page entitled: Fables and Fairy Tales
- Page entitled: Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
© Micheline Walker
24 October 2015
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