What is a Limerick?

Limerick's are a short poem of five lines.

They comprise of two rhyming lines together known as couplets and a single line which rhymes with the first couplet rhyme, often repeating the first line.

The rhyme structure is AABBA

An example is There was a young girl of Runcorn.    (A)
                        Her voice as loud as a foghorn.         (A)
                        On a hill she would stand,                  (B)
                        Shouting "Here there be LAND!"       (B)
                        That noisy young girl of Runcorn,       (A)


Limericks are often bawdy, that is they are often full of double meaning or sexual in content, that is not a necessary feature but it was a common feature of English Music Hall comedians where they would produce the first four lines of a Limerick and allow the audience to complete their own joke by adding the final line. The regular meter and rhyme means that often the audience could see where the limerick or joke was going. This Music Hall technique was in part to avoid censorship by local officers of the Watch Committees and inpart to prevent children hearing unsuitable jokes.

Limericks are simple to create if you maintain a strong rhyme in the last syllables of the lines.. Once you begin it actually becomes quite addictive. I can create seven or eight Limericks per hour if I set my mind to do so.

Try them they are fun.

To read There Was an Old Man limerick  CLICK HERE!