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A limerick is a form of poetry, especially one in five-line, predominantly meter with a strict rhyme scheme (AABBA), which is sometimes obscene with humorous intent. The first, second and fifth lines are usually longer than the third and fourth. The oldest attested text in this form is a Latin prayer〔Jean Harrowven. 1976. ''The Limerick Makers.'' London, p. 13.〕 by Thomas Aquinas of the 13th century. The form appeared in England in the early years of the 18th century.〔An interesting and highly esoteric verse in limerick form is found in the diary of the Rev. John Thomlinson (1692–1761): ''1717. Sept. 17th. One Dr. Bainbridge went from Cambridge to Oxon () to be astronomy professor, and reading a lecture happened to say'' de Polis et Axis, ''instead of'' Axibus.'' Upon which one said, Dr. Bainbridge was sent from Cambridge,—to read lectures'' de Polis et Axis; ''but lett them that brought him hither, return him thither, and teach him his rules of syntaxis.'' From ''Six North Country Diaries'', Publications of the Surtees Society, Vol. CXVIII for the year MCMX, p. 78. Andrews & Co., Durham, etc. 1910.〕 It was popularized by Edward Lear in the 19th century,〔Brandreth, page 108〕 although he did not use the term. The following limerick is of unknown origin: Gershon Legman, who compiled the largest and most scholarly anthology, held that the true limerick as a folk form is always obscene, and cites similar opinions by Arnold Bennett and George Bernard Shaw,〔Legman 1988, pp. x-xi.〕 describing the clean limerick as a "periodic fad and object of magazine contests, rarely rising above mediocrity". From a folkloric point of view, the form is essentially transgressive; violation of taboo is part of its function. ==Form== The standard form of a limerick is a stanza of five lines, with the first, second and fifth rhyming with one another and having three feet of three syllables each; and the shorter third and fourth lines also rhyming with each other, but having only two feet of three syllables. The defining "foot" of a limerick's meter is usually the anapaest, (''ta-ta-TUM''), but catalexis (missing a weak syllable at the beginning of a line) and extra-syllable rhyme (which adds an extra unstressed syllable) can make limericks appear amphibrachic (''ta-TUM-ta''). The first line traditionally introduces a person and a place, with the place appearing at the end of the first line and establishing the rhyme scheme for the second and fifth lines. In early limericks, the last line was often essentially a repeat of the first line, although this is no longer customary. Within the genre, ordinary speech stress is often distorted in the first line, and may be regarded as a feature of the form: "There ''was'' a young ''man'' from the ''coast'';" "There ''once'' was a ''girl'' from De''troit''…" Legman takes this as a convention whereby prosody is violated simultaneously with propriety.〔Legman 1988, p. xliv.〕 Exploitation of geographical names, especially exotic ones, is also common, and has been seen as invoking memories of geography lessons in order to subvert the decorum taught in the schoolroom; Legman finds that the exchange of limericks is almost exclusive to comparatively well-educated males, women figuring in limericks almost exclusively as "villains or victims". The most prized limericks incorporate a kind of twist, which may be revealed in the final line or lie in the way the rhymes are often intentionally tortured, or both. Many limericks show some form of internal rhyme, alliteration or assonance, or some element of word play. Verses in limerick form are sometimes combined with a refrain to form a limerick song, a traditional humorous drinking song often with obscene verses. Whose contents run chiefly to sex; It’s famous for virgins And masculine urgin’s And vulgar erotic effects. David Abercrombie, a phonetician, takes a different view of the limerick, and one which seems to accord better with the form.〔Abercrombie, David, ''Studies in Phonetics and Linguistics'' 1965 Oxford University Press: Chapter 3 ''A Phonetician's View of Verse Structure''.〕 It is this: Lines one, two, and five have three feet, that is to say three stressed syllables, while lines three and four have two stressed syllables. The number and placement of the unstressed syllables is rather flexible. There is at least one unstressed syllable between the stresses but there may be more – as long as there are not so many as to make it impossible to keep the equal spacing of the stresses. (See “the young man of Japan”, below.) As an example, in first line of the limerick given above, there are three unstressed syllables between the first and second stresses, two between the second and third, but only one unstressed syllable before the first stress. There may or may not be an unstressed syllable (or, rarely, two) after the final stress of the line. In the example above there are unstressed syllables at the end of lines three and four but not at the end of the remaining lines. Moreover, it is intrinsic to the limerick that there be a silent stress at the end of lines one, three, and five. A silent stress occurs when the reader undergoes the physiological changes associated with a stress but without any sound. To understand this, imagine that a drum is struck each time there is a stress. Then, in English verse, the drum beats would be equally spaced, regardless of the number of unstressed syllables that separate them. However, in reading a limerick, after the third beat of the first line, the next beat falls at the end of the line, not on the first stress of the second line. Thus, it is perhaps better to think of the limerick as having four stresses (the final one silent) in lines one, two, and five – and two stresses, of course, in lines three and four. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Limerick (poetry)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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