Limericks - forgotten art form

I was reminded by a dear friend of the fun that we used to have many years with limericks. 

For those of you have not had much exposure to limericks, they are an almost forgotten form of entertainment.

Essentially a poem with 5 lines - the first introduces the main rhyming word, the middle sets up the punchline and then the funny end which will  elicit a laugh or at the very least make you smile.

It's a form which uses idioms, phonetics and most importantly puns. And the best part is that you can create your own limericks with a little bit of imagination.

Historically limericks have tended to be risque but Edward Lear and Ogden Nash proved that "clean" limericks can be humorous as well.

Enjoy some samples. As you will see the greatest of writers could not resist the charm of limericks.

There was Old Man with a beard,
Who said, 'It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard (Edward Lear)

A flee and a fly in a flue
Were caught, so what could they do ?
Said the fly, "Let us flee"
"Let us fly" said the flea
So they through a flaw in the flue (Ogden Nash)

As a beauty I am not a great star
There are others more handsome by far,
But my face, I don't mind it,
Because I'm behind it,
'Tis the folks in the front that I jar ( Anonymous)

Our novels get longa and longa
Their language gets stronga and stronga
There’s much to be said For a life that is led
In illiterate places like Bonga (H. G. Wells)


There was a small boy of Quebec
Who was buried in snow to his neck
When they said, "Are you friz?"
He replied, " Yes, I is —
But we don't call this cold in Quebec" (Rudyard Kipling)

And finally -

There was a young lady from Niger, 

Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger. (Anonymous)

Hope you enjoyed those. If you want to read more, find books by Ogden Nash and Edward Lear at your library.

Interestingly limericks are a predominantly English language phenomenon probably because of the the construct of the language and the way it lend itself to puns.

In case the creative urge overtakes you, do add your limericks to this blog.

For more of Ogden Nash's works use this link
http://www.westegg.com/nash/ or this http://www.ogdennash.org/

For Edward Lear's work use this link

http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/

Happy reading.