Even folks who otherwise have no interest in collecting poetry often have a volume or two on their shelves devoted to the anapestic (sometimes amphibrachic) delights known as limericks:
There once was a girl named Irene
who lived on distilled kerosene.
But she started absorbin'
a new hydrocarbon
and since then has never benzene.
Limericks, by definition, are almost always naughty. Their transgressive nature (upsetting various taboos) is one reason so many of them are attributed to Anonymous:
There once was a mathematician
Who preferred an exotic position.
'Twas the joy of his life
to achieve with his wife
topologically complex coition.
Several scholarly works have been written about the form, the best known probably being the two volumes penned by American folklorist Gershon Legman. The product of several decades of research, the two volumes contain almost 5000 authenticated examples.
Most limericks follow a strict rhyme scheme (a-a-b-b-a), often have a "twist" at the end, and usually engage in a good bit of word play. In the following example, both "spring" and "fall" have several different meanings:
There was a young fellow named Hall
who died in the spring in the fall.
'Twould have been a bad thing
had he died in the spring
but he didn't — he died in the fall.
Although much earlier examples have been documented, the form was widely popularized by 19th century author Edward Lear, whose own 200+ limericks were mostly nonsensical, accompanied by witty illustrations:
Poetry purists may shun such works, but book collectors interested in humor, folklore and like topics continue to find much of interest in books devoted to the subject (several such titles have in fact been penned by "serious" poets--see below):
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