Write Limericks
It's All About Word Play

Here are some teaching tools you might use to help your student understand how to write limericks.

I've been in classrooms teaching kids my art, and even third graders catch on to the sing-song nature of the limerick poem readily. Here's an example and discussion:

All those very sweet nuns taught me this-
When you hear a blue joke, you're remiss
If you don't play obtuse
With a feeble excuse
By pretending an ignorant bliss.

Here's the pattern to write limericks:

DA DA DUH, DA DA DUH, DA DA DUH
DA DA DUH, DA DA DUH, DA DA DUH
DA DA DUH, DA DA DUH
DA DA DUH, DA DA DUH
DA DA DUH, DA DA DUH, DA DA DUH

Can you "hear" it? Tap it out on the table. If you have one, turn on your metronome - truth is, I hear this as 4/4 time in which the third and fourth line are joined together. In my head it sounds like:

One Two Three Rest
One Two Three Rest
One Two Three Four
One Two Three Rest

But that's just me and my childhood's piano lessons talking.

I've also laid out the limerick architecture more traditionally on this page. Learning to write limericks in the classroom makes for an exceptionally cooperative group of youngsters. It's a joyful experience.

To Write Limericks

When you've written some thousands of these
The limerick poem's done with ease
You don't yet have the knack?
The device that you lack
Is to write and to write sans surcease.

That last line is good advice for any form of writing. No matter the genre, like cooking, the more you practice, the better you get. Big shock there.

Notice that I've used alliteration with the "th" sound of "thousands" and "these" and again, "sans" and surcease." I particularly like the second pair because it almost hisses with s's.

Whenever you get a chance, weave alliteration into your poem. The limerick form has a reputation for being ribald and bawdy. It grew up in pubs in the British Isles, although there are (believe it!) limericks by St. Thomas Aquinas in Latin and even a generous supply in French.

Sit vitiorum meorum evacuatio
Concupiscentae et libidinis exterminatio,
Caritatis et patientiae,
Humilitatis et obedientiae,
Omniumque virtutum augmentatio.

Thomas Aquinas

Let my viciousness be emptied,
Desire and lust banished,
Charity and patience,
Humility and obedience,
And all the virtues increased.

Old Thomas was neither bawdy nor funny, but he still liked the limerick.

Anything can pass for free verse; very few people get it "right." I have tried some myself when treating a serious theme but I don't believe that free verse should be attempted until the presumptive poet has learned the discipline of rhyme, meter, and proper scansion. Scansion refers to analysing a verse to show its meter. You have to know the rules before you break the rules.

In line two, I deliberately used the word "ornament" with the wrong inflection - accenting the second syllable.

And if it won't fit, there's enjambment
A perfectly proper ornament
And I don't give a scrap
If you wince over that
Bit of scansion improperly bent.

Most of the "free verse" on blogs strikes me as little more than undisciplined ramblings, a pouring out of angst with no concern for technique.

There are two types of haiku: wonderfully deep and truly awful. Like free verse, everyone thinks they can make one, but few people can pull it off well. Most haikus I've seen are little more than brain droppings. Still, despite the scatological reference, haiku can evoke the most sensuous moments or eloquent philosophy. With its 5 - 7 - 5 syllabic structure, the venerable haiku has some rigor.

Four lines, rhymed. Beyond that there's a great deal of flexibility. I've seen effective use both of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter and four lines of straight iambic tetrameter.

The quatrain can have many rhyme schemes: abab, abcb, aabb, abba - did I get 'em all? I began writing these when I noticed that Twitter can't take the length of the limerick with its 140 character limitation. They're fun.

Quatrain poetry should be taught before limerick poems for the former are very definitely easier to manage. Here are several pages of quatrain examples on another website of mine.

Welcome to the big time and some weighty themes. We're talking Dante's Inferno and Greek epic poetry. These are toughies, much more difficult than learning to write limericks.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.