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Limerick poetry - Recurring themes

Limerick poetry - Recurring themes: Encyclopedia II - Limerick poetry - Recurring themes

Limerick poetry - Ribald verses. Definitely a recurring theme is the indecent subjects of many limericks. It is often considered that the less innocent limericks are amongst the best, and the most common: The limerick packs laughs anatomical Into space that is quite economical. But the good ones I've seen So seldom are clean And the clean ones so seldom are comical. -- Vyvyan Holland See also:

Limerick poetry: Encyclopedia II - Limerick poetry - Recurring themes

Limerick poetry - Recurring themes

Limerick poetry - Ribald verses

Definitely a recurring theme is the indecent subjects of many limericks. It is often considered that the less innocent limericks are amongst the best, and the most common:

The limerick packs laughs anatomical Into space that is quite economical. But the good ones I've seen So seldom are clean And the clean ones so seldom are comical. -- Vyvyan Holland

Two volumes of Lecherous Limericks were written by Isaac Asimov, the well known science fiction author.

Limerick poetry - Nantucket

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The mythopoeic "man from Nantucket", typically portrayed as a sexually perverse and hypersexual persona, is also a recurring theme in limericks. For example:

There once was a man from Nantucket Who kept all his cash in a bucket. But his daughter, named Nan, Ran away with a man And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

This literary trope can be attributed to the many whalers who once lived on Nantucket and the popularity of the limerick genre in whaling culture. It has also been suggested that the popularity of Nantucket in limericks stems from the possibility to rhyme it with a number of obscenities.

Limerick poetry - Uttoxeter and Exeter

Similarly Uttoxeter and Exeter have been used as the inspiration for hundreds of limericks:

There was a fair maiden of Exeter, So pretty that guys craned their necks at her. One was even so brave as to take out and wave The distinguishing mark of his sex at her.