National Limerick Day

A limerick is a type of lyric poem with a very specific rhyme scheme and metric pattern.  Limericks are often for comedy but they can be satirical as well.  It is made up of 5 lines of poetry.

Tomorrow is National Limerick Day.

Each line follows a pattern of unstressed/unstressed/stressed syllables

The meter follows this pattern:

Lines 1 2 and 5 are usually 9 syllables

Lines 3 and 4 are usually 6 syllables

Here are a couple of examples of a Limerick poem:

“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 (this Brit popularized the limerick)

“Our novels get longa and longa

Their language gets stronga and stronga

There’s much to be said 

For a life that is led

in illiterate places like Bonga”

HG Wells

Private Home Health Care hopes you can have some fun tomorrow working on your own limerick.  It’s good for your brain and you might add a bit of laughter to your day!