|
Article Excerpt
limerack limerickable limerickist limerist
limereck limerickation limerickize limerix limeric limericked limerickized limmerick limerical limericker limerickle limrick limerically limerickest limerickshaw limricked limerication limericking limericky limricker limericist limerickism limeriddle limricking (From websites found on Google)
Introduction
This Kickshaws Special celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 1907 British Limerick Craze, and what better way to celebrate it than to present 100 limericks, one for each year? The limerick count includes each 5-1ine limerick, whether it stands alone or serves as a stanza in a longer poem. It does not include the older limericks quoted in the essays or the partial limericks in which one or more lines are left out on purpose for special effects. Eighty-seven people have contributed limericks to this article. The first part has limericks by Word Ways authors and others, and the second part has limericks by writers of the Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form (OEDILF).
Never before have so many different kinds of limericks appeared in a single article. Some of the limericks use puns, palindromes, spoonerisms, or charades. Some use foreign words, made-up words, unusual words, letters as words, and one uses extra-long words. One counts its own letters, and one doesn't have any letters to count. Some have only one to four lines, and two have an abundance of words in the fifth line. One is a word-unit palindrome, one is a word-unit reversal, and one is a line-unit reversal. Some have no beginning, some have no ending, and one has alternate endings. One is a riddle, some are jokes, and some are nonsense. Many are comic, and a few are tragic. But all are limericks.
Originally there was going to be one limerick per contributor. However, some people contributed multi-limerick poems or related sets of limericks that couldn't be printed separately, and some contributed two or more limericks that incorporated other forms of wordplay or used noticeably different strategies. Such "avant-garde" limericks show how far the form has come and suggest how far it can go. Creative wordplayers such as the OEDILFers and the Word Wayers are discovering that it can do as much as any poetic form--and perhaps more.
Shortly after the OEDILF started, I joined the project. I've written several limericks for it, and I've read a horde of them written by other members. What great things can be packed into small boxes! Two years ago I began rewriting Dante's Inferno from tercets to limericks without straying too much from the meaning of the original or excluding any parts. Limerick Inferno showed me that these "small boxes" can be connected one after the other in epic proportions: It resulted in 1,502 limericks, 34 of which are two-line partial limericks that end each Canto.
The limerick is the stanza of choice for rewriting classical literature, and the Bible is the most popular book to rewrite. Most of the limericked books that I've found stick to the topic, but the two longest include modern characters: The Limerick Iliad ends with characters from the movie Back to the Future, and The Limerick Odyssey mentions Harry Potter. Here is a list of several published or unpublished limerick rewrites of the classics that turned up in Google searches:
Bocaccio's Decameron David Finley 50 limericks, 1 per story Mary Shelley's Frankenstein David Finley Limericks of the crucial dialog The Bible in Limerick Verse Christopher Godwins 120 limericks The Limerick Iliad Joe Green, Tim Smith Almost covers the whole book The Limerick Odyssey Joe Green Almost covers the whole book There Was a Young Girl from Max Gutmann 38 limericks, Verona (Limericks based on (see below) 1 per play Shakespeare's (see below) plays) The Five-Minute Dante's Inferno Greg Nagan A few limericks Paradise Lost, the Limerick Carol Wyvill 1 limerick per book/chapter
What will be limericked next? Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, The Kama Sutra, The Faerie Queene, Leaves of Grass, The Wasteland, and every single one of the Canterbury Tales are begging to cast offtheir old identities, change clothes in the phone booth of literature, and fly out as 21st-century superlimericks.
Currently, I am limericking Nostradamus's prophecies, which are written in quatrains. For example, here is the well-known Hister / Hitler quatrain, translated from the French by Erika Cheetham in her comprehensive book, The Prophecies of Nostradamus (Berkley, 1981). Below it is my limerick version.
From The Prophecies of Nostradamus by Erika Cheetham
Wild beasts with hunger will cross the rivers, The greater part of the battlefield will be against Hister. In a cage of iron, the leader will be dragged When the German child obeys no law.
From The Limericks of Nostradamus by DM
Wild beasts with great hunger will blister And war against dread Adolph Hister. In a cage made of metal The leader will settle When a German boy shouts, "Achtung, Mister!"
This column was a last-minute idea, and it was put together in about a week. It would have been impossible to assemble it that quickly without the use of email. Unfortunately, some writers who may have liked to participate didn't find out about it in time. If you are reading this and wish to be a part of the Limerickshaws Celebration of the 1907 British Limerick Craze, please mail or email your limericks for the next Kickshaws column.
Many thanks to Ove Michaelsen for coming up with the idea for this special edition of Kickshaws and for writing the first essay below, to Susan Thorpe for the second essay, and to Dr. Arthur J. Deex for the third essay and for permission to reproduce three postcard images from his collection. Special thanks and a tip of the Alphabet Hat to Chris J. Strolin, who posted the project on the OEDILF website, contacted many of its writers, put together the entire OEDILF section, and wrote the introduction to it. And of course thanks to all of the writers for contributing their wonderful limericks. Edward Lear would be proud of you!
I leave you with a challenge for the November Word Ways: Write a limerick in which every word begins with the same letter--a "letterick." Pick a letter, any letter, put pen to paper, and send your lettericks to the Kickshaws Editor. My contribution kicks A:
As always, an affable ass Avoids adding artwork--alas! And all arty artists And all anti-artists Ask asses, "Ah, artists amass?"
DAVE MORICE
Iowa City, Iowa
Evolution of the Limerick
by Ove Michaelsen
Limericks = Slick rime! (anagram by Hexagony, 1908) A limerick = I lack rime. (antigram by O.M., 2007)
The limerick might be the only verse form indigenous to the English language. It was apparently first made popular in Britain by London illustrator and author Edward Lear (1812-1888) in the 1863 reissue of his 1846 work the Book of Nonsense. It is believed that these were not referred to as limericks until 1896 (artist Aubrey Beardsley used the word in a letter to Leonard Smithers in 1896)--eight years after Lear's death.
"The 212 that he wrote were called 'learics' by his...
|
