By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The limerick is a poetic form shrouded in mystery: nobody knows why they’re named after Limerick, who invented the form, or when they were first composed.
Limericks
Five Fascinating Facts about the Limerick
By Dr Oliver Tearle
1. Nobody knows for sure why limericks are named limericks.
There have been numerous theories put forward for why the five-line verse known as the ‘limerick’ is so named, but none of them is conclusive. The name ‘limerick’ was first applied to the five-line form in the late nineteenth century, and one theory holds that comic verses once contained the line ‘Will [or won’t] you come (up) to Limerick?’
The Lives of Victorian Writers Told in Limericks
The literary lives of twelve famous Victorians, told in the poetic form they knew so well Nobody knows for sure why limericks are named limericks. They’re obviously named in honour of Limerick, the city in Ireland, but beyond that nothing is known for certain about why a five-line comic poem should be so named. But … Read more