Limericks

My favorite form of poetry is the limerick. They are short and sweet and to the point. Plus, they rhyme. You can string several together to create a longer poem or story, or leave them alone. Unfortunately, limericks have the propensity for being vulgar. I don't know why. I found this limerick that describes limericks one time. I memorized it, but I have no idea who wrote it.

The limerick packs laughs anatomical

In space that is quite economical,

But the good ones I've seen

So seldom are clean,

And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

Limericks were made popular by Edward Lear in the 19th century, although he did not use the term. One of his most famous limericks is:

There was an 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!'

I didn't even know what limericks were when I was young, but I loved them. One of the first that I memorized was actually in Matilda by Roald Dahl:

An epicure dining at Crew
Found a rather large mouse in his stew
Said the waiter, "Don't shout,
And wave it about!
Or the others will be wanting one, too!"

I even had the opportunity to write one in middle school for a poetry project. Now, a little background is in order for this limerick to have the semblance of humor. I was supposed to be writing (in addition to the limerick and couplets and diamantes and etc.) an acrostic poem using the letters of my first and last name. Each letter was supposed to begin a line. My name was not easy to do this with, and I was frustrated, so I wrote a limerick about it. My teacher's name really was Bob by the way.

There once was a teacher named Bob,
Who made a student write poems til she sobbed.
He made her write acrostics
Until she went ballistics
Now he is out of his job.

The once was a man in Nantucket
To reach a shelf he stood on a bucket
Sadly for him,
His foot missed the rim
So his foot in the bucket got stuck'it.

So, since I love limericks, I thought I would share a few of my memorized favorites, just in case you have nothing better to do. (I know I don't. I'm in a stupid class right now. That will probably be in a blog later.)

There once was a fellow named Paul
Who fell in a spring in the fall
It would have been a bad thing,
If he had died in the spring,
But instead, he died in the fall.

There once was a fellow named Saul
Who wrestled 9 grizzlies one fall
9 was such a good score
He tried for one more
But he lost, well you can't win 'em all!

An elderly man named Scott Keith,
Lost his set of false teeth
He put them down on a chair
And forgot they were there
He sat down and was bitten beneath