Limerick Poetry

Limerick
The limerick is a fun, nonsense poem that originated in the 1700s; legend holds that soldiers from the Irish city of Limerick brought the poetry style back from France.  It often involves crude or even “raunchy” humor about body parts, bodily functions, sex, etc., though there are also a lot written for children.  It is a five-line poem with a rhyme scheme of aabba and a syllable scheme of 9,9,6,6,9, although these can be modified.  Because of the emphasis on the rhythmic nature though, a good rule to follow is to use iambs (patterns of stressed/unstressed syllables) and to use the same number of syllables for corresponding lines (if you alter the first line to seven syllables instead of nine, for example, then your second and fifth lines should also use seven instead of nine).   Because of the whimsical nature of this style, limericks frequently use other poetic devices such as alliteration, (sometimes to the point of being tongue twisters) and puns or other plays on words.

Limericks follow a standard form of five lines and have a rhyme scheme of aabba.

A few limericks from anonymous authors:

There once was an old man of Lyme
Who married three wives at a time
When asked "Why a third?"
He replied, "One's absurd!
And bigamy, Sir, is a crime."

There was a young fellow named Hammer
Whose had an unfortunate stammer
"The b-bane of my life"
Said he, "Is m-m-my wife
D-d-d-d-d-d-damn ‘er!"

She made friends with a young undertaker;
Her last boyfriend had forsaken her.
But she started to curse
When he turned up in a hearse.
She said next time I’ll date a baker!

Other limericks:

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the fly, “Let us flee.”
Said the flea, “Let us fly.”
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse did run!
Hickory, dickory, dock.



In the traditional way of writing limericks, the first line of the poem introduces a person AND a location.  And the last line usually ends with the name of the location, though sometimes with that of the person.

A true limerick is supposed to have a kind of twist to it. This may lie in the final line, as sort of a suprise conclusion (often with humor, like a punch line) or it may lie in the way that the rhymes sound ntentionally twisted, or it may be both of these factors!

The Rhyming Pattern:

The last words of the 1st, 2nd, and 5th lines all rhyme with each other.

And the last words of the 3rd and 4th lines rhyme with eachother

The Rhythm Pattern:

The 1st, 2nd, and 5th lines all have the rhythm pattern:
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM

The 3rd and 4th lines have a slightly different rythm that is:
da DUM da da DUM

The 'DUM' word represents a place where the syllable is stressed...and 'da' represents a regular word, spoken without stressing it.

So, to conclude: When composing a limerick, make sure that the rhyme pattern of aabba and that the rhythm patter is as listed above, with stresses on the proper syllables.