SCIENCE AND POETRY. LIMERICKS ON PHYSICS
SCIENCE AND POETRY. LIMERICKS ON PHYSICS

Summary/Abstract: Defined as a typically humorous, lewd and/or nonsensical verse which adheres to a strict rhyme scheme and joyous rhythm, the form is well known to generations of English-speaking readers. A generalization about limericks divides them in three categories: clean, indecent and intellectual. The category called the “intellectual stream” contains verses upon such subjects as philosophy, science, art and literature, disease, the Devil, contemporary figures, French towns, fictional persons and places, and many other topics, written by a variety of authors. According to a historical timeframe, limericks devoted to Physics cover the main important well-known discoveries in the field from Galileo to Newton, Einstein to Bose and Hawking or refer to such specific concepts like Coriolis force, kinetic energy, angular momentum, protons, neutrons and electrons, quark-dorks, conservation laws, quantum mechanics, Lorenz transformations and so forth. It can be easily detected that limericks on Physics are extremely varied in topic, structure, tone and language; they display skillful rhymes and the language used ranges from scientific to puns to describe physical phenomena and concepts. They use original ideas and indecent allusions are less rare in this area, being serious, semi-serious and funny. Their humour is mild, sophisticated, gentle and subtle and their cognitive and artistic value are unmistakable.

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