Limericks

The following is a simplified descripition of what constitutes a limerick.
Rhyme Scheme

The following is a simplified descripition of what constitutes a limerick.

Rhyme Scheme
Limericks must have five lines with aabba rhyme scheme.

Rhythm
The beat must be anapestic (weak, weak, strong) with three feet in lines 1, 2, and 5 and 2 feet in lines 3 and 4. This will be explained further below. However the following exceptions are allowed:

The first foot of an line may have only one weak beat in front of the strong beat.

Trailing weak beats that continue the rhyme are allowed at the end of the each line. Naturally these sounds must be identical over rhyming lines.

The following covers most cases, where S equals a strong beat, w indicates a weak beat, and the brackets indicate that the beat is optional. Note that on the same line, different strong beats are always separated by exactly two weak beats. The options apply only to the leading and trailing beats.

Lines 1,2,5: w [w] S w w S w w S [w] [w]

Lines 3,4: w [w] S w w S [w] [w]

Restriction on Rhyming Beats.
The last strong beats in the lines must rhyme (125 and 34) and the any weak beats at the end must match and must have the same sound over rhyming lines. Limericks with two weak beats at the end are less common than those with one or none. In poetry books, single beat rhymes are called masculine rhymes; two-beat rhymes are called feminine rhymes. A combination of wwS is called an anapest; a combination wS is called an iamb.

Beginning weak beats
Note that each line can start with either one or two weak beats. Various writers have proposed special restrictions (such as requiring just one weak beat at the start of lines one and two, or requiring matching the initial number of weak beats over certain lines), but all such restrictions fail the empirical test of describing what good anthologies and recognized masters have produced.

Even some apparent patterns such as one weak beat for the first foot of line one is caused mainly by the two formulas, "There was a . . . ," and "There once was a . . ." By the way, readers should note that the following formulation is wrong:

There once was a young lady . . .

The reason is that "once" takes a strong beat as does the first syllable of "lady" and there are three weak beats in between. This is taboo. So basically, your practice should be:

1. If you want an adjective, use something like, "There was a young lady . . ."

2. If you wish to omit the adjective, then use something like, "There once was a lady . . ."

Before using either form, readers should note the comment on style found below.

Examples:
Following are some well-known limericks with beat patterns laid out.


There was a young lady from Niger. (w S w w S w w S w)
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger. (w S w w S w w S w)
They returned from the ride (w w S w w S)
With the lady inside, (w w S w w S)
And the smile on the face of the tiger. (w w S w w S w w S w)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


There was a young lady from Kent (w S w w S w w S)
Who said that she knew what it meant (w S w w S w w S)
When men asked her to dine, (w w S w w S)
Gave her cocktails and wine. (w w S w w S)
She knew what it meant but she went. (w S w w S w wWhilst Limericks are generally thought of as vehicles for humour, this is not necessarily the case. Poetic Limericks cover the whole spectrum.

This is one of my poor efforts

There once was a man, Cobholmblue,
No money so what could he do?
Cos highlights aint free,
So to god he bent knee
Who said " I think that the grey will suit you"

and yes, I duly got grey hair! lol

Take this example by Joel D Ash

A green heart still beats in my chest,
My feelings in poems are expressed;
Remembrance and thought,
Your enjoyment is sought,
I do hope that my rhymes meet the test.

I have also seen poems in which the limerick 'form' is used as the verse structure for a poem of several verses. It need not be a stand-alone