is a type of humorous verse of five lines with an AABBA rhyme scheme: the poem's connection
with the city is obscure, however, the name is generally taken to be a
reference to Limerick City or County
Limerick. sometimes particularly
to the Maigue Poets, and may
derive from an earlier form of nonsense
verse parlour game that
traditionally included a refrain that included "Will [or won't] you come
(up) to Limerick?" The
earliest known use of the name "Limerick" for this type poem is an
1880 reference, in a St. John,
New Brunswick newspaper, to an
apparently well-known
