Word: verseform
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Surely the invention of the limerick was a brilliant piece of originality. Who did it, or why he named the verseform after the country which lies just west of Tipperary, is not known. But the limerick was developed and popularized by Edward Lear 80 or 90 years ago. He was a young artist of 20 who had just published some colored plates of the rarer Psittacidae (parrots). The 13th Earl of Derby went up to London thereupon and lured Lear to go down to Knowsley to draw Derby's private menagerie. While there, he wrote some poems for the delectation...