Isaac Asimov Wrote “Gross” Limericks — Lots of Them

asimov gross limericks
Isaac Asi­mov — he’s best known for his mas­ter­ful works of sci­ence fic­tion.  He was also a pro­fes­sor of bio­chem­istry at Boston Uni­ver­si­ty. A com­mit­ted human­ist. And some­one who enjoyed writ­ing lots of dirty lim­er­icks. Some­where on his list of 500+ books, you will find Lech­er­ous Lim­er­icks (1976), Lim­er­icks: Too Gross (1978), A Grossery of Lim­er­icks (1981), and Asi­mov Laughs Again: More Than 700 Jokes, Lim­er­icks, and Anec­dotes (1993). In two of these vol­umes, Asi­mov sparred with pop­u­lar poet and Dante trans­la­tor John Cia­r­di, each writ­ing dirty poems, and try­ing to mas­ter a rather strict poet­ic form that began in ear­ly 18th cen­tu­ry Eng­land.

Most of the lim­er­icks are indeed a “gross.” Many are crude. Some would be con­sid­ered down­right offen­sive by 2015 stan­dards. But, if you want a taste of what Asi­mov served up, you can try out these tamer ones from Lim­er­icks: Too Gross.

The haughty philoso­pher, Pla­to
Would unbend to a sweet young toma­to.
Though she might be naive
Like you would­n’t believe
He would patient­ly show her the way to.

A cer­tain young fel­low named Scott
Once jumped his young bride on their cot.
He intend­ed no shirk­ing.
But from sheer over­work­ing
A dry run is all that she got.

If you want to see Asi­mov at his tamest, you can also check out his book Lim­er­icks for Chil­dren.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Isaac Asi­mov Pre­dicts in 1964 What the World Will Look Like Today — in 2014

Free: Isaac Asimov’s Epic Foun­da­tion Tril­o­gy Dra­ma­tized in Clas­sic Audio

Isaac Asi­mov Imag­ines Learn­ing in the Elec­tron­ic Age … and Gets It Quite Right (1989)


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