Author Description

The Penguin Book ofLIMERICKSOur existence would be that much grimmer except for the solace of limericks.— A fact that's unknownTo two lots alone— The drearier dons and the dimmer hicks.So says Robert Conquest, and sharing the pages of this volume are a multitude of fellow practitioners of this most infectious of verse forms. Quite apart from the feverishly creative ranks of Anon., contributions from Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, W.H. Auden, Lewis Carroll, Ogden Nash, James Joyce, Dylan Thomas, John Betjeman and many others are collected together in this unique anthology. Scholarly wit rubs shoulders with barrack-room bawdy. Tongue-twisters, mnemonics and even serious or lyric limericks are included with many technical innovations such as the double limerick and the reverse limerick.This is a collection of some of the best and most surprising limericks in the English language, some of them never published before.