{"id":110963,"date":"2017-05-17T15:05:12","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T19:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=110963"},"modified":"2017-05-17T15:24:25","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T19:24:25","slug":"five-limericks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Limericks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Just a few words about the rhymes and pictures below. The limericks date from 2013.\u00a0I wrote more than three hundred that year, and might have continued indefinitely except I was made to stop.\u00a0At first, they were a form of self-medication. In the aftermath of turning in my Ph.D. thesis and finally graduating (June 2012), I was completely numb. Only Edward Lear\u2019s limericks did me any good, so I wound up studying them. And then I just wanted there to be more of\u00a0him<\/em> \u2026 Naturally, all good things have to be taken too far and made monstrous. Some days I made four or five limericks, or four or five versions of the\u00a0same<\/em>\u00a0limerick, texting every one of \u2019em to the people in my life who, in my judgment, did not then and do not now deserve God\u2019s mercy. Everyone was fed up. So I promised to knock it off come Christmas 2013. Which promise was faithfully observed.<\/p>\n

The pictures, meanwhile, are newborns, less than six weeks old. These five specimens together, and<\/a> buckets<\/a> more<\/a> just<\/a> like<\/a> them<\/a>, are slated to appear in book form in 2018.\u00a0Prelude Books<\/a>\u00a0has graciously agreed to, et cetera. Of these items, \u201cMinsk\u201d is the most authentic (where\u00a0authentic<\/em>\u00a0is defined as \u201cclosely approximating the verbal manner of Edward Lear\u201d). Elsewhere, the rhyme {Bensonhurst | mention first<\/em>} will be judged satisfactory by persons who think all rhymes should be like that. \u201cBozeman,\u201d Montana is where my life partner, Nadya,\u00a0is from. The image depicts the two of us very accurately.<\/p>\n

In closing, it\u2019s vital that everyone understand that the pictures were not done by me, but by my friend\u00a0Mark Fletcher<\/strong>, who also designed the covers of\u00a0both my books<\/a>.\u00a0I said for years that I had never heard this man\u2019s voice. It’s still true to this day. All we ever do is email. We were put in touch, seven or eight years ago, by our mutual friend Michael Robbins, who, incidentally, headed the movement to annihilate the limericks juggernaut.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, I want to underscore that Mark Fletcher alone is responsible for the gorillas, the blankets, the verisimilitude of the Louvre exterior, and for ninety-six\u00a0percent of any actual value attaching to this whole enterprise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anthony Madrid<\/a> lives in Victoria, Texas. <\/em>His second book of poems is\u00a0<\/em>Try Never<\/a>\u00a0(Canarium Books, 2017). He is a correspondent for the\u00a0<\/em>Daily.<\/em><\/p>\n

Illustrations by Mark Fletcher.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2013 I wrote more than three hundred limericks. They were a form of self-medication. Some days I made four or five versions of the same limerick\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1005,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22700],"tags":[7575,11405,28853,21562,7221,165,17787],"class_list":["post-110963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-correspondents","tag-edward-lear","tag-limericks","tag-mark-fletcher","tag-michael-robbins","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-rhymes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFive Limericks (in the Style of Edward Lear)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2013 I wrote more than three hundred limericks. They were a form of self-medication. Some days I made four or five versions of the same limerick\u2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Limericks by Anthony Madrid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 17, 2017 \u2013 In 2013 I wrote more than three hundred limericks. They were a form of self-medication. Some days I made four or five versions of the same limerick\u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-17T19:05:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-17T19:24:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/limerick85bensonhursta-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1567\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1184\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anthony Madrid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anthony Madrid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anthony Madrid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ff28732ebcbdac8b865bc16ad5887c2e\"},\"headline\":\"Five Limericks\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-17T19:05:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-17T19:24:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/\"},\"wordCount\":404,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/limerick85bensonhursta-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Edward Lear\",\"limericks\",\"Mark Fletcher\",\"Michael Robbins\",\"poems\",\"poetry\",\"rhymes\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Correspondents\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/\",\"name\":\"Five Limericks (in the Style of Edward Lear)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/limerick85bensonhursta-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-17T19:05:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-17T19:24:25+00:00\",\"description\":\"In 2013 I wrote more than three hundred limericks. They were a form of self-medication. Some days I made four or five versions of the same limerick\u2026\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/limerick85bensonhursta-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/limerick85bensonhursta-1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Five Limericks\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ff28732ebcbdac8b865bc16ad5887c2e\",\"name\":\"Anthony Madrid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/549efa5a01d55301426f5af7f96efcdad383944e916201d24ebb62c4e26da542?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/549efa5a01d55301426f5af7f96efcdad383944e916201d24ebb62c4e26da542?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Anthony Madrid\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/anthony-madrid\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Five Limericks (in the Style of Edward Lear)","description":"In 2013 I wrote more than three hundred limericks. They were a form of self-medication. Some days I made four or five versions of the same limerick\u2026","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Five Limericks by Anthony Madrid","og_description":"May 17, 2017 \u2013 In 2013 I wrote more than three hundred limericks. They were a form of self-medication. Some days I made four or five versions of the same limerick\u2026","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2017-05-17T19:05:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-05-17T19:24:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1567,"height":1184,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/limerick85bensonhursta-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anthony Madrid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anthony Madrid","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/"},"author":{"name":"Anthony Madrid","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ff28732ebcbdac8b865bc16ad5887c2e"},"headline":"Five Limericks","datePublished":"2017-05-17T19:05:12+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-17T19:24:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/"},"wordCount":404,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/limerick85bensonhursta-1.jpg","keywords":["Edward Lear","limericks","Mark Fletcher","Michael Robbins","poems","poetry","rhymes"],"articleSection":["Our Correspondents"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/","name":"Five Limericks (in the Style of Edward Lear)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/limerick85bensonhursta-1.jpg","datePublished":"2017-05-17T19:05:12+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-17T19:24:25+00:00","description":"In 2013 I wrote more than three hundred limericks. They were a form of self-medication. Some days I made four or five versions of the same limerick\u2026","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/limerick85bensonhursta-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/limerick85bensonhursta-1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/17\/five-limericks\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Five Limericks"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ff28732ebcbdac8b865bc16ad5887c2e","name":"Anthony Madrid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/549efa5a01d55301426f5af7f96efcdad383944e916201d24ebb62c4e26da542?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/549efa5a01d55301426f5af7f96efcdad383944e916201d24ebb62c4e26da542?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Anthony Madrid"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/anthony-madrid\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110963"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110985,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110963\/revisions\/110985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}