Poetry Styles: Limericks

Limericks are a type of poetry that has certain distinctive elements. The elements of limericks are:

1. Limericks are meant to be humorous or nonsensical.
2. Limericks consist of five lines only, and they have a distinct rhythm.
3. The first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other (three rhymes form a triplet). The third and fourth lines have a different rhyme but still rhyme with each other (two rhymes form a couplet).
4. The first, second, and fifth lines are the same length.
5. The first, second, and fifth lines are each 7 - 9 syllables long, and have 3 accented syllables. (Ex: There once was a man from Nantucket - 9 syllables, accents on "once", "man", and "tuck".)
5a. Each line usually consists of two short syllables and a long one. (Ex: "There once was a man from Detroit" - short or non-accented syllables are "was a" and "from De". The long or accented syllables are "once", "man", and "troit".)
5b. Another way of remembering the rhythm and rhyme of a limerick is this:

da-DA da-da-DA da-da-DA da
da-DA da-da-DA da-da-DA da
da-DA da-da DEE
da-DA da-da DEE
da-DA da-da-DA da-da-DA da

7. The third and fourth lines are shorter.
8. The third and fourth lines are 4 - 6 syllables long and have 2 accented syllables. (See examples below.)
9. The third and fourth lines are slightly indented, usually by three spaces.
10. Puns, wordplay, alliteration, and internal rhyming are often used in limericks.

Many limericks are bawdy and off-color but they need not be in order to be funny. Part of why they are sometimes off-color is the common use of the beginning phrase "There once was a man from Nantucket" and the off-color word(s) that rhyme with it.

The limerick was made popular in the "Book of Nonsense" by Edward Lear in 1846. Limericks were very popular in the 1800's and early 1900's. They were often obscene, bawdy, and/or made fun of politicians. The limerick is best known in England and Ireland.

An example of one of Edward Lear's limericks is:

There was a Young Person of Smyrna
Whose grandmother threatened to burn her;
But she seized on the cat,
And said 'Granny, burn that!
You incongruous old woman of Smyrna! ^¹

The popular childhood rhyme "Hickory, dickory dock / the mouse ran up the clock..." is another early example of a limerick.

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Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick_(poetry)

Personal knowledge

^¹ Wikipedia, "Limerick (poetry)", "Edward Lear", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick_(poetry)

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