Limericks are a mystery in the world of poetry. Nobody knows what they are really named after, who invented the form, or when they were first composed in history. What we do know, though, is that they are timeless and the earliest date back to the middle ages.
Also, they can be funny and outrageous. They demonstrate mastery and control of the verse form. They are overall an admirable form of language.
There have been various theories about how the limerick came to be, but there is still no conclusive evidence. The name “limerick” was first applied to the five-line form in the late nineteenth century, and one theory stands that comedic verses once contained the line Will [or won’t] you come [up] to Limerick?
But although the poems are most definitely named after Limerick in Ireland, whether or not this is the true origin of the name is uncertain.
Did you know that there is even a limerick in Shakespeare’s Othello? In this tragedy written in around the year 1600s, Iago sings a song:
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.
From Roxburgh Ballads, published in 1640, we have Mondayes Worke:
Good morow, neighbor Gamble, Come let you and I goe ramble; Last night I was shot; Through the braines with a pot, And now my stomache doth wamble.
The following three limericks are classic examples written by poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909). Just a fair warning, they are rather… crude.
There was a young girl of Aberystwyth; Who took grain to the mill to get grist with. The miller’s son Jack; Laid her flat on her back, and united the organs they p*ssed with.
There was a young lady of Norway; Who hung by her toes in the doorway. She said to her beau; ‘Just look at me Joe, I think I’ve discovered one more way.
There was a young man from Dundee; who b*ggered an ape in a tree. The results were quite horrid: All arse and no forehead, Three balls and a purple goatee.
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