Poetic Form
Limerick
A five-line comic poem with a bouncing meter and a final twist.
Lines5Always five
RhymeAABBATwo short lines in the middle
MeterAnapesticThree beats, two, then three
ToneComicEnds on a punchline
About the Limerick
The limerick is a five-line comic poem whose bouncing rhythm and emphatic rhyme scheme set up an inevitable punchline. It is the most familiar form of nonsense verse in English and one of the few fixed forms still widely written for laughs.
Structure
Five lines rhyming AABBA. Lines one, two, and five have three feet (typically anapestic); lines three and four have two feet. The final line carries the punch, often a pun, twist, or absurd resolution.
Limerick
Long, long, short, short, long
Opening
1A
2A
Short lines
3B
4B
The Turn
Punchline
5A
A Short History
- 1820sEarly limericks appear in English children's books.
- 1846Edward Lear publishes A Book of Nonsense.
- Late 1800sThe name limerick comes into use.
- TodayStill the go-to form for comic verse.
Famous Limericks
- 01"There was an Old Man with a beard"Edward Lear
- 02"There once was a man from Nantucket"Anonymous
Questions About the Limerick
The things people ask most, answered in a sentence or two.
AABBA. Lines one, two and five rhyme with each other, and the two shorter middle lines rhyme together.
Lines one, two and five usually have eight or nine syllables with three beats. Lines three and four have five or six syllables with two beats.
Nobody knows for sure. It may come from the Irish city of Limerick.