Limerick Information

Introduction

A limerick is a short, humorous poem. Recently, while at a used bookstore, I discovered an old volume ironically entitled New Comic Limericks. This collection of limericks had poems by many authors, including Ogden Nash and Edward Lear. Meter

By analyzing poems in this book, I discovered that the syllable breakup is typically either as follows:

First line: 9 syllables
Second line: 10
Third line: 6
Fourth line: 6
Fifth line: 10

Or as follows here: First line: 8
Second line: 9
Third line: 5
Fourth line: 5
Fifth line: 9

Rhyming

The rhyme scheme is quite simple. The first, second, and last lines rhyme. The third and fourth lines have a different rhyme.

Here is an example by Ogden Nash to illustrate the meter and rhyme scheme:

There was a young lady from Cork
Who tackled her soup with a fork.
When her parents looked pained,
She proudly explained,
"That's the way they eat soup in New York."

Limericks Links

Math Limericks

This page has absolutely hilarious math limericks. I am in high school and I didn't understand all of them, but the ones I did get were funny and my Dad said that the rest were funny.

Complete the Limericks Page

This is really supposed to be a kids page, but I think that everyone will have fun completing the limericks here.

Are any of my links inactive? Please let me know.

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