Showing posts with label Edward Lear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edward Lear. Show all posts

May 12, 2017

National Limerick Day

It is observed annually on May 12 and celebrates the birthday of English artist, illustrator, author, and poet Edward Lear. He is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry, prose, and limericks.
National Limerick Day also celebrates the limerick poem, a very short, humorous, nonsense poem. Within a limerick, there are five lines.  The first two lines rhyme with the fifth line and the third and fourth line rhyme together. The first, second, and fifth lines must have seven to ten syllables while rhyming and having the same verbal rhythm. The third and fourth lines only have to have five to seven syllables, and have to rhyme with each other and have the same rhythm. The limerick also has a particular rhythm which is officially described as anapestic trimeter
A limerick example of a nursery rhyme.
    “Hickory, dickory, dock,
    The mouse ran up the clock.
    The clock struck one,
    And down he run,
    Hickory, dickory, dock.”

There once was a man named Lodge,
who had seat belts installed in his Dodge.
When his date was strapped in,
He committed a sin,
without ever leaving the garage.


A bather whose clothing was strewed
By winds that left her quite nude
Saw a man come along
And unless I am wrong
You expected this line to be lewd.