Limerick[s] (reply to Joel)

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Fri Nov 13 16:15:18 UTC 2009


At 11/13/2009 07:56 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
...
>>[Quoting Joel:]
>>6)  A limerick from Limerick:
>>
>>The Sporting Times [London], 1895 October 25, p. 6.
>>
>>An Irish contractor, Pat Googahan,
>>Supplies us with Limerick beogahan,
>>    It's true that the pork
>>    Come chiefly from Cork;
>>But thousands, they tell me, he's meogahan.
>>
>>[So here we have Limerick, a limerick, and the Sporting Times all
>>together -- but it's a bit late, and naturally doesn't tell us that
>>such rhymes are called "limericks".]
>>[I could also use a translation.]
>>
>>7)  A puzzle, essentially a rebus.  For example, between the text
>>"The Soil is equally sui-" and "for grazing and for" is a picture of
>>a table.  The puzzle is titled "Limerick" -- but it is about the
>>county of Limerick.
>>
>>Joel
>
>Thanks very much Joel. Your #6--I'd call it a Limerick *mentioning* Limerick
>rather than *from* Limerick

Since I don't know what "Limerick beogahan" is, I couldn't tell
whether this limerick is "from" or simply "mentions" Limerick.  :-)
And is *anyone* going to give me a translation?!  I assume "beogahan"
and "meogahan" are humorous misspellings of somethings, but I don't know what.

>--is interesting, even if not as early as Legman
>guessed. (We have explicit use of the Limerick poem name earlier in 1895.)
>It
>adds to the accumulation of texts that suggest knowledge that the verse
>form is
>called Limerick, even if not explicitly saying so.
>
>About #7 (undated?) did you mean *not* titled Limerick but about Limerick?

No, the puzzle is titled "Limerick" as well as being about the
county.  But I assume the title simply refers to the subject, the
county, not that rebuses are called "Limericks".  And there is no
element of the limerick rhyme.

Joel

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