Format of a limerick

Answer 1

Limericks are less about the syllables but are more about the rhyme.

Hickory, Dickory Dock,

A mouse ran up the clock,

The Clock struck One,

The mouse fell down,

Hickory Dickory Dock.

The first, second, and last lines all rhyme, while the third and fourth lines rhyme themselves. A-A-B-B-A

A There was an old man with a beard,

A Who said, 'It is just as I feared!

B Two owls and a hen,

B Four larks and a wren,

A Have all built their nests in my beard!'

These two poems do not have the same number of syllables, but they are both limericks because of their rhyme pattern. Typically, limericks have three stressed syllables altogether in the first, second, and last lines, and two stressed syllables in the third and fourth.

Answer 2

The Limerick, popularized in the 19th century by Edward Lear, is a humorous epigrammatic verse in five lines of mixed iambic and anapestic meter, lines 1, 2 and 5 in trimeter, 3 and 4 in dimeter, rhyming a-a-b-b-a.

Answer 3

The Limerick is defined as a bit of humorous or nonsense light verse having five anapestic lines with the rhyme scheme aabba. The classic scansion goes: 1 ba diddity diddity dum 2 ba diddity diddity dum 3 ba diddity dum 4 ba diddity dum 5 ba diddity diddity dum. Its inventor, Edward Lear, always more or less repeated the first line as the fifth. But modern limericks have five different lines, customarily ending with a "punch" line.

Answer 4

Besides the classic limerick rhyme pattern (A-A-B-B-A), it usually tries to include some type of pun or play on words. Two examples:

A classic limerick:

There once was a man from Nantucket,

Who kept all his cash in a bucket.

His daughter (named Anne)

Ran off with a man,

And as for the bucket, Nan "tucket".

And an original of my own:

There once was a fellow named Fisher

Who went to fish in a fissure.

The fish pulled the line

He went into the brine,

Now their fishing for Fisher in fissure.

Hope that helps!

Answer 5

A limerick is generally in the format where the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other and the third and the fourth rhyme with each other (aabba). Most of the time the 1st, 2nd, and 5th lines have three feet of three syllables each; while the shorter third and fourth lines have only two feet of three syllables each. While this can be easily modified, it is still the standard form. Example:

The Limerick* packs laughs anatomical

In space that is quite economical.

But the good ones I've seen,

So seldom are clean,

And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

*(Pronounced "Lim'rick" to preserve meter)

Answer 6

A typical limerick has rhyme scheme aabba and meter 33223.

Usually these things are witty or humorous, to wit:

An exceedingly fat friend of mine,

When asked at what hour he'd dine,

Replied, "At eleven,

At three, five, and seven,

And eight and a quarter past nine.

Answer 7

There are a few important rules to follow when writing a limerick. This form of poetry requires the writer to have a poem that is 5 lines long where the first, second, and fifth line rhyme. Lines 3 and 4 should also rhyme with each other.

Answer 8

Five lines of humorous verse.

Rhyme scheme: AABBA.

First, second and fifth lines: three metric feet.

Third and fourth: two feet.

And it must scan perfectly.

Answer 9

The rhyme scheme of a limerick is AABBA.