Category Archives: Limerick

Mid-Month Poetry Prompt

Leave a comment

LIMERICK

This five-line rhyming poem is often silly, funny or bawdy. Limericks have a waltzing rhythm (anapestic) and a rhyme scheme of AABBA. The third and fourth lines are shorter with 5 or 6 syllables, while all other lines are around 8 or 9 syllables (but sometime up to 12).

Limericks were made popular by Nonsense Poet Edward Lear back in the 1870’s. The word Limerick is the name of a town and a county in Ireland, but there is no record to say that this poetic style originated there.

Limericks are traditionally about people or places, but there are plenty of ways to break the rules and still have a Limerick style.

Loony Limericks by James Aitchison

Leave a comment

There was a young man from Crete,
Who walked on his hands not his feet,
What a fun affair
To have your knees in the air,
And shake toes with the people you meet.

There was a young man from Peru,
Who swallowed a mouthful of glue.
His lips were sealed,
His nose was congealed,
And his face turned a bright shade of blue.

Loony Limericks by James Aitchison

Image from Pexels

“There once was a girl who ate chips” by Dannielle Viera

Leave a comment

There once was a girl who ate chips
and anything else near her lips.
She soon grew so wide
from the junk food inside
that she caused a full solar eclipse!

Limerick by Sioban Timmer

Leave a comment

There once was a postie called Progge

Who had a most wonderful dog

It could carry more letters

Than fifteen red setters

And he never got lost in the fog!

Sioban Timmer

Sioban says: I wrote this in primary school after we learnt about limericks – and for some reason I have always remembered it!

 

Limerick by Doug MacLeod

Leave a comment

Limerick

The glorious lady Godiva,
Of fame we would never deprive her,
A nude horseback dash
Might seem crude, even brash,
But my gran has done worse for a fiver.

© Doug MacLeod