THE
STRUCTURE OF A
Limericks are short poems of five
lines having rhyme structure AABBA. It is officially described as a form of 'anapestic trimeter'.
The 'anapest'
is a foot of poetic verse consisting of three syllables, the third longer (or
accentuated to a greater degree) than the first two: da-da-DA.
The word 'anapest' shows it's
own metric: anaPEST.
Lines 1, 2 and 5 of a limerick
should ideally consist of three anapests each,
concluding with an identical or similar phoneme to create the rhyme.
Lines 3 and 4 are shorter,
constructed of two anapests each and again
rhyming with each other with the overall rhyme structure of AABBA.
The anapest
metric must show the following pattern:
(da) da DA
da da DA
da da DA
(da) (da)
(da) da DA
da da DA
da da DA
(da) (da)
(da) da DA
da da DA
(da)
(da) da DA
da da DA
(da)
(da) da DA
da da DA
da da DA
(da) (da)
Meaning that you can
leave off the syllables in parentheses.
But 1, 2 and 5 should match each
other, and 3 and 4 should match.
there ONCE was a GIRL from nanTUCKet --- leaves off the final 'da'
the
A good example of a limerick:
The limerick packs laughs
anatomical
Into space that is quite
economical.
But the good ones I've
seen
Hardly ever are clean
And the clean ones so
seldom are comical.
Two more examples with anapests and rhyme highlighted:
There was an young man of
Endowed
with such delicate feeling.
When he read on
the door
"Do not spit
on the floor",
He jumped up and
then spat on the ceiling!
It's been told an
old man had sent Emails,
To some various dubious
females,
He was asked what
they said,
But he just shook
his head.
I would rather not
go into details.