Writers tutorial entry; Limerick and how we write it

LIMERICK AND HOW WE WRITE IT.
COMPILED BY: MOSES S. OLAROTIMI
A limerick is a poetic form that can be particularly fun to read and to write. Limericks are often humorous, mean-spirited, or pornographic. I'll explain the form, and you can d...ecide how down and dirty you want to get.
Limericks consist of five lines. The rhyme scheme is AABBA. In other words, Lines One, Two, and Five all rhyme with each other, and Lines Three and Four rhyme with each other (in some limericks, Lines One and Five end with the same word and rhyme with Line Two).
The limerick is a very structured 5 line poem. Originally, according to Wikipedia, limericks were a bit obscene, but that has changed with the times. The first, second and fifth lines, the longer lines, rhyme. The third and fourth shorter lines rhyme. (A-A-B-B-A)
Creating a limerick is not that hard. The first line usually introduces a person from a place, the third and forth lines have the comic twist and the last line a conclusion. An easy way to start is to make a list of words that rhyme after you set up the first line.
Here's an example of a classic limerick by Edward Lear, where the first and last lines rhyme:
There was a Young Lady whose eyes,
Were unique as to colour and size;
When she opened them wide,
People all turned aside,
And started away in surprise.
Here's another example by Lear, where the first and last lines end with the same word:
There was an Old Person of Dover,
Who rushed through a field of blue Clover;
But some very large bees,
Stung his nose and his knees,
So he very soon went back to Dover.
The typical rhythm of a limerick is like this:
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH
Let’s see a poem that help explain this better:
There was an old man from Peru, (A)
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
who dreamed he was eating his shoe. (A)
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
He awoke in the night (B)
da DUM da da DUM
with a terrible fright, (B)
da da DUM da da DUM
and found out that it was quite true. (A)
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
Here is a simpler way to go about writing a Limerick
For example, I had wanted to make a poem for my brother, Ted. I made a list of words rhyming with Ted:
Bed Instead
Bread Led
Red Fled
Read Lead
Fed Ned
Dread Wed
And so on….I put down the first line:
There was a sweet guy named Ted… (after that it practically wrote itself.)
Who would rather lead than be led
Along came Patty
Ted got a bit batty
And now he follows instead.
This is a poem and limericks especially lend themselves to poetic license.
One of the best poets to use this device was Dr. Seuss. In “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, he talks about how the Grinch was in Cindy Lou Who’s house and he was taking her things.
“And the Grinch very nimbly
Stuffed all the presents one by one
Up the chim-bly”
Of course the word is chimney. Many times I have my 2nd graders correct me…I simply tell them chimney doesn’t rhyme with nimbly!
Words-places especially-can be made up to rhyme, as with this limerick (author unknown):
There once was a girl from Devrizes
Whose breasts were of 2 different sizes.
One was small
And of no use at all
The other was quite large and won prizes.
Is Devrizes a place? Who knows but the syllable count and rhyme work!
The bottom line is - limericks are fun and easy to write. Try it and see!
COMPILED BY: MOSES S. OLAROTIMI