Full disclosure: I bought this book because it has illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley, but it turned out to be pretty decent in terms of written content as well. I previously read the Baring-Gould’s book which explores the Mother Goose nursery rhymes in depth (which I bought for its Arthur Rackham illustrations), and similarly the author explores the development and content of the limerick with a particular focus on its English-ness. Mostly I found myself being distracted by the humourous bent of the poems themselves, whose rhythm is impossible not to get stuck in your head very quickly, but I was surprised to discover that so many well known authors and artists wrote limericks themselves. Obviously the form is a simple one that can be picked up by almost anyone, and the trend of popularity even among the academics of the Victorian age guaranteed their widespread creation, so honestly I shouldn’t have been surprised at all - why not dash off a limerick or two to impress one’s friends with your wit and sarcasm, since everyone was doing it! I didn’t make it through reading every single limerick in the alphabetized section, since there are so many examples, but this is definitely a good book to dip into from time to time when less frivolous poetry gets to be too serious. ( )

I'm sorry, Shane Warne, you are just that sort of guy....

There once was a bowler called Warney

- rest here:


http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/the-lure-of-the-limerick-b... ( )

I'm sorry, Shane Warne, you are just that sort of guy....

There once was a bowler called Warney

- rest here:


http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/the-lure-of-the-limerick-b... ( )

A collection, with some commentary and analysis of this amusing poetry form. ( )

See my review dated 24 Jun 2012 on the Amazon website. ( )