L is for Limerick

L is for Limerick 

Blogging Through the Alphabet

The term Limerick is thought to be derived from the

Irish City of Limerick. English and American authors

around the same era claim to have coined the term;

yet many favor the Irishman theory.

Limericks were made famous by Edward Lear, a famous author

who wrote the "Book of Nonsense" in the 1800.

A Limerick consists of five lines.

The first line of a limerick poem usually begins with

'There was a....' and ends with a name, person or place.

The last line of a limerick is normally a little farfetched or unusual.

A limerick should have a rhyme scheme of AABBA:

This means lines 1,2 and 5 rhyme and lines 3 and 4 rhyme.

Also, lines 1, 2 and 5 should have 7 – 10 syllables

and lines 3 and 4 should have 5 – 7 syllables.

There was an old man in a tree,

Whose whiskers were lovely to see;

But the birds of the air,

Pluck'd them perfectly bare,

To make themselves nests on that tree.

      ~ Edward Lear ~

I Wish that my Room had a Floor!

I don't so Much Care for a Door,

But this Crawling Around

Without Touching the Ground

Is Getting to be Quite a Bore!

       ~ Gelett Burgess ~  

There once was a fish who could talk.

He wanted to learn how to walk.

He got out from the sea,

Fell right onto me,

And I nearly died from great shock.

~ Elizabeth Trang ~

Hickory dickory dock,

the mouse ran up the clock;

the clock struck one

and down he run;

hickory dickory dock.

~ Mother Goose ~ 

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!

~ Edward Lear ~

A flea and a fly in a flue

Were imprisoned, 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.

~ Ogden Nash ~

This post is a part of a collaborative project called, Blogging through the Alphabet. To read more 

click here and here.