Limerick: a brief comic poem consisting of an ictosyllabic four-beat four-line stanza in triple measure rhyming a a (b)b a (where (b) indicates internal rhyme), in which all but the third line have silent final beats (see isoictic). Line three is normally printed as two lines:
A macho young cowboy named Tex
Was arraigned for exposing his sex;
But the judge, with a snort, Threw the case out of court,
For non curat de minimis lex.*
(*Latin: “the law does not concern itself with trifles [lit. ‘very small things’]”)
The form was popularised by Edward Lear, whose nonsense limericks (in which the rhyme-words of the first and last lines tend to be identical) explore the surreal; the modern limerick, however, is more commonly a vehicle for risqué...
Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.
131 words
Citation: Groves, Peter Lewis. "Limerick". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5526, accessed 09 June 2026.]
