• ON LIMERICKS

    Is it possible to read poetry and have fun at the same time ? Indeed. Go to this page and learn everything about limericks !

    A Limerick is a short poem (5 rhyming lines : aa bb a) Lines 3 and 4 always a maximum of 3 (sometimes 2) stressed syllables. The last line generally sounds like a big surprise.

    There was a young girl from St Paul

    Wore a newspaper dress to a ball;

    But the dress caught on fire

    And burnt her entire

    Front page, sporting section and all. 

    Most of the time, the end is absurd, so this form of poetry is often classified as nonsense (a bit like Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland). Edward Lear is the most famous limerick writer, but limericks can be anonymous.

    There was a young lady of Riga,

    Who smiled as she rode on a tiger;

    They returned from the ride

    With the lady inside,

    And the smile on the face of the tiger.

     

    Sometimes they start from funny situations : 

    A traveller when dining in Crewe
    Found a fat little mouse in his stew.
    Said the waiter, "Don't shout
    And wave it about,
    Or the rest will be wanting one, too"

    Or they can be pure phonetic games:

     There was a young fellow from Bicester

    Who fell in love with his sicester

    When accused of incest

    He lost interest

    But he still got a thrill when he Kicester

    You'll find a lot more on the Internet (quite a ... serious one http://www.thehypertexts.com/The%20Best%20Limericks%20of%20All%20Time.)


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