What’s a Limerick?Learning Limericks and their Origin

Limericks in History…

The limerick is a form of poetry that first appeared in the early 1800s.

Edward Lear first published limericks in A Book of

Nonsense in 1846. Lear was an English artist, illustrator and poet. He is known for first making the limerick

popular.

Limericks- when you write your limericks don’t forget they have to be a) silly b) illustrated (just like Lear)

Lear wrote 212 limericks, mostly in nonsense verse with silly illustrations.

Limericks are supposed to be funny and to be remembered!

Why are they called Limericks?

Let’s read on page 563, under Build Background to learn more about how limericks got their name!

Define a limerick.

Limerick- a form of nonsense verse. A typical limerick has five lines and follows the rhyme scheme aabba.

Like other forms of poetry limericks are meant to be read aloud.

The Laughing Limerick website shows that “most

(but not all) limericks begin with the phrase

"There once was a __________ from ________."

or

"There was a ________ _____________ from

_________.“

Write your own Limerick!

A Limerick pattern to follow:

Line 1: Tell who the person is and where he or she is from

Line 2: Describe the person or tell something interesting

about him or her

Line 3 & 4: Give more interesting detail about what was

mentioned in line two

Line 5: Based on the first four lines, finish off the limerick

with a surprising and/or funny ending

The rhyme scheme or rhyme pattern is AABBA.

Rhyme scheme or pattern:

Example Limerick:

There once was a girl from Troy A

She would always try to annoy A

She looked like a moose B

She laughed like a goose B

Her silliness always caught a boy A