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How to Write a Limerick?-

5 Easy steps

By Swagatika KarPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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(image designed by the author)

This blog is one more blog of mine written about an interesting poetic form "limerick". What we mostly read and write these days is free verse. But, there are hundreds of different poetic forms existing in our literature since ancient times about which we don't know and also don't know how to write those. In this blog, you will get an idea about what a limerick is and you will get to know the basic steps to write your first limerick.

What is a limerick?

A limerick is a very short poem with 5 lines only. All these 5 lines are arranged in a single stanza. AABBA is the rhyming pattern of such kind of poems. You can notice a touch of bouncy rhythm in case of limerick. The major goal behind any limerick is to entertain the audience to the fullest by writing about a funny or silly theme. This form of poetry is not very ancient and introduced during 18th century. If you will observe the rhyming pattern of a limerick, then you can clearly see, line one, line two and line five have similar ending sounds or rhyming words. Again, line three and four must rhyme together. Now let's talk about the rhythm of a limerick. Here, it follows anapestic rhythming pattern. In anapestic rhythming pattern, two unstressed syllable are followed by a stressed syllable. All limericks always start with a narrative style like we do while starting a story.

How to write a limerick?

1. Decide a story of your own: First you have to decide a story or theme on which you are going to write. There is no restriction on the subject of writing. Just try to write in a funny and interesting voice. Think yourself as a performer and you have to entertain your audience with just 5 short lines of a story.

2. Start with a narration style: All the limericks start with a narration style like we find often in case of stories. For example, "There was a young lady from Russia" or "There was an Old Man with a beard", and so on. You may ask why to start a poem like a story? Limericks are nothing but very short and funny stories those are written in a poetic form. You are see some poems those will slightly differ from this pattern

3. Follow the rhyming pattern: If you are writing one limerick, you must follow the strict rhyming pattern AABBA. The first, second and last line of the poem must have rhyming ending words. Similarly, the second and third must have similar pronouncing ending words.

4. Stay with the rhythm: Start writing with anapestic rhythm. What is an anapestic rhythm? In anapestic rhythm, you can see total three syllables. The initial two are short and unstressed. The third syllable is long and stressed. (I will write separate blog for different meterical foots)

5. Focus on the Structure: Every limerick you will read must have a main character, a plot and a resolution. In the first line you have to introduce your main character to your audience. You can try this format: (someone) from (somewhere) or (someone) with (something) for your first line which is most commonly used in majority of limericks. Then your work is to put that character into a funny or humourous situation. Don't be afraid to sound silly. Being silly can add more essence to your poem. The final concluding line of your poem must end with a punch line.

Three Examples of famous Limericks:

The following two are examples of famous limericks from "A Book of Nonsense" by Edward Lear.

(image designed by the author)
(image designed by the author)

The following one is an limerick written by a British Mathematician Leigh Mercer who wrote an interesting limerick about an equation.

(image designed by the author)

Now, you must have a basic idea about this poetic form "limerick" and you can start writing your own first limerick easily.

Thanks for reading.

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