L is for Limerick

Hasn’t everyone heard the one that begins “There was a young man from Nantucket …?” There are some pretty crude limericks out there, but we’ll leave that for another time

Limericks are short poems with a sense of humor. They’ve been since the mid-1800′s and are generally assumed to have originated in the town of Limerick, Ireland. There’s no documentation I could find to prove this, though.

Limericks are simple little poems that all have the same rhythm. The first, second and fifth lines rhyme, and the third and fourth lines rhyme. So, in poetry language, the rhythm is AABBA. I’ve never written a limerick before, but I decided to give it a try.

There once was a young witch from Hawick

who tried to come up with a limerick

she wrote and she rhymed

til she almost went blind

then gave up and flew off on her broomstick

As you can see, I’m not poet. It was a good mental exercise, though.

Have you ever written one? I’d love to hear it if you have.