Limerick Examples

Limerick

A limerick is a poem that meets the following criteria:

  • Has 5 lines-lines 1, 2, and 5 are longer than 3 and 4.
  • Has a rhyme scheme of AABBA.
  • Has a pattern of unstressed, stressed; unstressed, unstressed, stressed.
  • Lines 1, 2, and 5 have 3 "feet" or "beats." Lines 3 and 4 have 2 "feet" or "beats." The basic pattern goes like this:

    • da DEE da da DEE da da DEE

    • da DEE da da DEE da da DEE

    • da DEE da da DEE

    • da DEE da da DEE

    • da DEE da da DEE da da DEE

  • Limericks are typically humorous poems.

Examples of Limerick:

Hickory dickory dock,

The mouse ran up the clock.

The clock struck one

The mouse ran down.

Hickory, dickory dock.


There once was a man from Nantucket,

who kept all his cash in a bucket.

But his daughter, named Nan,

ran away with a man,

And as for the bucket, Nantucket. (Edward Lear)


And let me the canakin clink, clink;

And let me the canakin clink

A soldier's a man;

A life's but a span;

Why, then, let a soldier drink. (Shakespeare, in Othello)

Related Links:
Examples
Grammar Examples
Edward Lear Facts
Handwriting Practice - Handwriting for kids
Newton's Three Laws Quiz
Mixed Multiplication And Division Worksheets