Part 1: Forms of Poetry--Limerick

3. Limerick
Definition: A limerick is a light and humorous poem that first became popular with “Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense” in 1846 (CL 120). There are five lines in a limerick and the rhyme scheme is aabba where “the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme” (CL 120). The first and last lines also used to end with the same word, but the “practice [was] dropped in the 20th century” (RPO). The subject matter in limericks can range from the “silly to the obscene” (Meyer).

Examples:

Ogden Nash

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


Edward Lear

There was an Old Man in a tree,
Who was horribly bored by a Bee;
When they said, “Does it buzz?”
He replied, “Yes, it does!”
“It’s a regular brute of a Bee!”


“Dinosaur Named Fred” –Rebecca Read

There once was a dinosaur named Fred
Who liked to eat nothing but bread.
But it had not been invented
So he grew thin and dented
And soon he was lying there dead.



Works Cited

Darigan, Daniel L., Michael O. Tunnell, and James S. Jacobs. Children’s Literature: Engaging Teachers and Children in Good Books. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2002.

“Limerick.” Meyer Literature: Glossary of Literary Terms. 2 November 2009. http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/literature/bedlit/glossary_l.htm

“Limerick.” Representative Poetry Online (RPO). 2 November 2009. http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/display_rpo/terminology.cfm#lyric

Poems

Lear, Edward. “Old Man in a tree.” Limerick Poems. 5 November 2009. http://www.limerick-poems.com/Famous-Limerick-Poems/Limerick-Poems-There-was-an-Old-Man-in-a-tree-Edward-Lear.htm

Nash, Ogden. “A flea and a fly in a flue.” Favorite Limericks. 5 November 2009. http://home.earthlink.net/~kristenaa/faves.html

Read, Rebecca. “Dinosaur Named Fred.” Limerick Poems. 5 November 2009. http://www.limerick-poems.com/Famous-Limerick-Poems/Funny-Limerick-Poems-There-once-was-a-dinosaur-named-Fred-Rebecca-Read.htm