Limericks
are a misunderstood form of poetry. Many
poetry purists don’t consider Limericks as poetry at all.
The
basis for a limerick is as follows:
Lines 1, 2, and 5 of Limericks have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one another.
Lines 3 and 4 of Limericks have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other. It can be funny, bawdy, sad or sexual.
Lines 1, 2, and 5 of Limericks have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one another.
Lines 3 and 4 of Limericks have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other. It can be funny, bawdy, sad or sexual.
Nursery
rhymes are often in limerick form.
Limerick is a town in Ireland where the first limericks were cultivated
as an art form. Many of the sexual or bawdy
limericks were created in pubs in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries by drunken patrons.
For
your enjoyment I am giving you some of the limericks from Edward Lear's “Book
of Nonsense” which was published by Thomas McLean on 10th February 1846. There
were altogether seventy-two limericks in two volumes. These limericks have
proven very popular over the years.
There was a Young Lady of Ryde,
Whose shoe-strings were seldom untied.
She purchased some clogs,
And some small spotted dogs,
And frequently walked about Ryde.
There was an Old Lady of Chertsey,
Who made a remarkable curtsey;
She twirled round and round,
Till she sunk underground,
Which distressed all the people of Chertsey.
There
was an Old Man of Kilkenny,
Who never had more than a penny;
He spent all that money,
In onions and honey,
That wayward Old Man of Kilkenny.
Who never had more than a penny;
He spent all that money,
In onions and honey,
That wayward Old Man of Kilkenny.
Their was a Young Lady of Bute,
Who played on a silver-gilt flute;
She played several jigs,
To her uncle's white pigs,
That amusing Young Lady of Bute.
Who played on a silver-gilt flute;
She played several jigs,
To her uncle's white pigs,
That amusing Young Lady of Bute.
There was an Old Man in a boat,
Who said, "I'm afloat, I'm afloat!"
When they said, "No! you ain't!"
He was ready to faint,
That unhappy Old Man in a boat.
There was a Young Lady whose
chin,
Resembled the point of a pin;
So she had it made sharp,
And purchased a harp,
And played several tunes with her chin.
There was an Old Man with a
beard,
Who said, 'It is just as I
feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my
beard!
I
hope you enjoyed or at least got a laugh out of one of these Limericks! I know I did! My favorite was the last limerick.
Do you have a favorite limerick
or rhyme?
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to everyone!
