A RHYME DESIGNED TO MAKE YOU SMILE!
May 12th is National Limerick Day, a perfect day and excuse to write your own limericks bringing a smile to yours and others faces.
A limerick is a humorous verse made up of five lines, in which the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines, which are shorter, form a rhymed couplet.
A great way to be guided and remember what the outcome should be is.
A limerick has five lines, not nine.
Start by rhyming two lines real fine.
Then rhyme another two.
It’s pretty easy to do.
Just don’t forget the punchline.
The first known uses of the word limerick referring to the poem come from the late 1800s. The name is said to have originated from a kind of party game in which people took turns making up a set of nonsense verses which sounds like my kind of gathering! Yet we were writing and reciting limericks before they were even called limericks, at least since the 1700s.
The format almost always used today was popularised by a poet Edward Lear in his 1846 collection 'A Book of Nonsense'.
Normally the humour comes from playing with words or just complete meaninglessness twaddle, although its great fun and a good way of expressing how you feel, remembering people you meet or situations you find yourself in!
A lot of nursery rhymes are actually limericks, or at least very similar in form. For example:
Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one,
And down he run
Hickory, dickory, dock!
Or some more unfamiliar versions
HICKORY DICKORY DOCK
THE MOUSE RAN UP THE GRANDFATHER CLOCK,
HE DID NOT EVEN BOTHER TO KNOCK.
THE CLOCK STRUCK WITH A "B O N G"
HIS HEARING WENT WRONG,
HE SUFFERED A TERRIBLE SHOCK!!
THREE BLIND MICE
HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE TALE OF 3 MICE,
IT'S A TALE I SHALL TELL, THOUGH NOT NICE.
A WIFE WITH A KNIFE
NEARLY COST
THEM THEIR LIFE,
THEY WOULD NOT TAKE THEIR PARENTS' ADVICE
THE HOUSE THAT
JACK BUILT
WE HAVE HEARD OF THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT,
IT WAS MORTGAGED RIGHT UP TO THE HILT!
THERE WAS QUITE A SENSATION
WHEN THE BASIC FOUNDATION
LIKE PISA'S TOWER, SLOWLY STARTED TO TILT.!!
Here are some more examples of limericks I have made up reflecting of the times we have found ourselves in;
LOCKDOWN
The thought of more lockdown
Was too much for Olive Brown
As well as going stir crazy
She became incredibly lazy
And her face became a permanent frown!
FURLOUGH
There was a man called Marlowe
Who due to the coronavirus was put on furlough
He made a mistake
Thinking it would be a nice break
And now his funds are pitifully low
PPE
There was a diabetic called Pete
Who took on a DIY feat
Not being able to find a mask
Became a creative task
So, he cut up his best bedsheet
PANIC BUYING
There was a woman called Iris
Who didn’t want to catch the virus
She stocked up on pasta and loo roll
But it has taken its toll
And now she’s the size of a walrus!