How to: Happy Limerick Day!

A limerick is a poem that makes you giggle

Makes your face smile and your belly jiggle

The way it rhymes 

On different lines

It takes poetry and makes it wiggle 

Simply put: a limerick is a type of poem. It’s normally funny, sometimes using the last line like a punchline. The first two lines rhyme with each other, then the third and fourth lines are shorter and rhyme with each other, and then the final line rhymes with the first two. 

Let’s look at another example of a limerick, this one by Edward Lear:

There was an Old Man who said, ‘Hush!

I perceive a young bird in this bush!’

When they said, ‘is it small?’

He replied, ‘Not at all!

It is four times as big as the bush!’

That limerick by Lear was so fun, let’s have another one!

There is a Young Lady whose nose

Continually prospers and grows;

When it grew out of sight,

she exclaimed in a fright,

“Oh! Farewell to the end of my nose!”

To write a limerick, first come up with your topic. A lot of limericks use animals as their subject because they do silly and chaotic things. Do you have a pet you can watch for a bit for inspiration? Or think of other animals you see, or other moments of silliness in your life. 

You can start with the first line of the poem, or the last one, whichever gives you inspiration first. Limericks should be, first and foremost, about having fun! If it makes you laugh, it will probably make someone else laugh too.