LIMERICKS OF ALEISTER CROWLEY, THE
The Beast has clearly stated that limericks are "useless stuff."
Note: All Limericks are listed by first line and are pulled from different sources which are as follows:
1 = Unpublished Diaries of Aleister Crowley (The Archives of HA c/o Cornelius).
2 = Legman, Gershon, The Limerick (NY: Bell Pub. Co. 1969 HB ) pg. lix.
3 = Legman, Gershon, The New Limerick (NY: Crown Publishers Inc. 1977) pgs.240-4.
4 = Roberts, Susan, The Magician of the Golden Dawn (CBI Chicago 1978 HB) pg.221-22.
5 = Powell, A, Messenger of Day, The Memoirs of, Vol.II (NY: H.R.& L. 1978) pg.84.
6 = The Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley, Ed. S.Skinner (NY: S. Weiser Inc. HB 1979).
7 = Snowdrops from a Curate's Garden. (Chicago: Teitan Press, Inc. HB 1986) pg. 149.
8 = Aleister Crowley, Selected Poems ed. M.Booth (Eng.: Crucible Books PB 1986) pg.199.
9 = Symonds, John, The King of the Shadow Realm (Eng: Duckworth 1989 HB) pg.525.
10 = Culpeper's The Limericks of Aleister Crowley (Eng. 1990 pamphlet).
11 = The Collected Limmericks of Aleister Crowley (OTO/Magick Theater CA 1990).
12 = Reynolds, M., Hemingway: The Paris Years (London: B.Blackwell Ltd 1990) pg.238.
13 = CHESS (magazine) December 1997 issue pg.24
14 = Letter from Karl Germer to Montgomery Evans February 26th 1942
15 = Aleister Crowley, Not the Life and Adventures of Sir Roger Bloxam, Chapter 38
A bootiful Lydy named Butts (1924) 1 3 10 11
A clergyman said to a girl, (1920) 3 9 11
A Dandy of Tiflis Armenia (1943, April 10) 1
A dwarf Kike, who called himself Houghton! (1934, Oct.23) 1 3 10 11
A fat-headed female called Burt (1941, Jan.8) 1 3 9 10 11
A fellow who fucked but as few can (1920) 3 4 10 11
A full-blossomed maid in a pub's (1946, April 7th) 1
A hog-like abortion named Mudd (1924 - 7th NB) 1 3 8 10 11
A militant Mormon of Wells (1937) 3 10 11
A party called Malachi Frank (1942, Jan.3) 1 3 8 10 11 14
A professor of Ethical Culture (1920) 3 4 10 11
A sapper, in sinking a well-shaft, (ND) 15
A sausage-lipped songster of Steyning (1930, June 28) 1 3 10 11
An aspiring young man, Kenneth Grant (1945, App.) 1 3 10 11
An old poet named Coventry Patmore (1920) 3 10 11
At Newlyn a furious Phylli (1938, Aug.13) 1 3 10 11
At Wisdom's cheese a nibbler (1941, Dec.4) 1
But with earthly success not content (1904) 3 7 8 10 11
He feared she would breed a facsimile (1944, Feb.5) 1 3 8 10 11
He moistened his gullet with turp- (1924) 3 10 11
He sang of the new moon and her p- (1924) 3 10 11
Her daughter went down to the creek (1937, Jan.7) 1 3 10 11
His twin brother, Puritan Peter (1920) 3 10 11
I wanted that sensitive slut's (1924) 1 3 10 11
Like the virgin who pouted, "By jingo ... (1920) 3 4 10 11
My name it is Aleister Crowley (1945 Appendix) 1 2 3 10 11
(Oh a) frantic, fanatical friar, (1920) 3 10 11
On the duck he did excellent work, he (1920) 3 10 11
Paul proper vowed virtue a cinch is: (1920) 3 10 11
"Rate, did you say," cried Cadger, "rate?" (1920) 3 10 11
Said a Yankee who visited Wells (1937, Dec.1) 1 3 8 10 11
(Said a) young dude who decided to bride his (1920) 3 10 11
She said, "There you go! False alarm again! (1920) 3 10 11
So when her pa proved "a mere scum pit ... (1904) 3 7 10 11
The absurd and antique Annie Besant (1920) 3 5 10 11
The boy who buggered a sea mew (1920) 3 10 11
The hoary old sinner named Sinnet (1920) 3 10 11
The son of a merciful Mandarin (1920) 3 10 11
The song of the starlight is Per-de-co: (1944, Dec.3) 1
There once was a Kensington Strumpet (1904) 3 7 10 11
There was a bright boy named Regudy (1929, Oct.21) 1
There was a philosopher, Spencer (1921) 3 8 10 11
There was a smart chess club at Eastbourne (Feb.1894) 13
There was a young bugger named Percy (1904) 3 7 10 11
There was a young lady named Emily (1944, Jan.22) 3 10 11
There was a young lady named Rose (1904) 3 7 10 11
There was a young man of Cape Town (1904) 3 7 10 11
There was a young poet called Keats (1920) 3 10 11
There was a young poet named Browning (1920) 3 10 11
There was a young poet named Earp (1924 -10th NB) 1 3 10 11
There was a young poet named Shelly (1920) 3 10 11
There was a young poet named Swinburne (1920) 3 10 11
There was a young scholar of Spy Hill (1904) 3 7 8 10 11
There was an American whore (1904) 3 7 10 11
There was an old artist Cezanne (1939, Jan.30) 1
There was an old Doctor named Zammitt (1923, Aug.18) 6 11
There was an old lady of Barking (1937, Jan.7) 1 3 10 11
There was an old lady of Bingley (1939, Dec.15) 1 3 10 11
There was an old lady of Cheltenham (1933, Aug.23) 1 3 10 11
There was an old lady named Clarke (1945, March 24) 1 3 10 11
There was an old lady named Marriot (1944, Jan.22) 1
There was an old man named Adair (1920) 12
There was an old man of Manchuria (1904) 3 7 8 10 11
There was an old man on a roof (1923, May 30) 6
There was an old woman named Martin (1940, Oct.9) 1
You swoon with excessive delight (1944, Dec.7) 1
Note: Many of these Limericks were published with extensive footnotes in Red Flame, The
Foolish Issue, No.6, 1999 in an article called Those Beastly Limericks of Aleister Crowley pg.1
LINES IN SPRING(poem)
In Residence pg.88 PB, 1904