Limerick poem dates

[Stephen Goranson]

The Muphry's Law correction: March 2911 should read 2011
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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Stephen Goranson [goranson at DUKE.EDU]
Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2011 8:42 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] Limerick poem dates

Michael Quinion wrote (12 March 2911) on "Limerick":
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-lim1.htm

Though I am away from my notes on Limerick, according to the article:

1) That "the first recorded example" of "come to Limerick" as "a challenge to somebody to come to the point, make himself clear, face the music or submit" is from 1862. But that is not true.

2) That "The first known appearance of _limerick_ for them [these nonsense poems] is in a letter of 1896 by the artist and illustrator Aubrey Beardsley." But that is not true.

3) That "the earliest North American example of _limerick_ so far known dates from 1898, two years after it appeared in the UK." But that is not true.

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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