Thoughts:

Just for fun today with St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, let’s consider limericks. The origin of the limerick is unknown, but it has been suggested that the name derives from the chorus of an 18th-century Irish soldiers’ song, “Will You Come Up to Limerick?” Limerick is the third largest city in Ireland and in Irish, means “the= flat area”.

A limerick is a five line poem with a strict rhyme scheme – the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme; while the third and fourth lines are shorter and share a different rhyme. They are typically humorous in nature. So, here are some popular Irish limericks for your enjoyment:

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!”
Edward Lear

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

There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan
Ran away with a man,
And as for the bucket, Nan-tuck-et.
Princeton Tiger

There was a young lady of Lynn,
Who was so uncommonly thin
That when she essayed
To drink lemonade
She slipped through the straw and fell in.
Anonymous

Bringing It Home:

Okay.  Now that you have the feel for it, here is your assignment – Have some fun and try composing a limerick of your own.  Please share your work so we can all have some St. Patrick’s Day laughter.  Here is my attempt:

There was a young lawyer named Sam,
Whose clients got into a jam.
They were charged with a tort,
But when they went to Court,
The case was dismissed as a scam!