Writing Focus: Limericks

There but a few poem types that can generate a light-hearted and humorous feeling better than limericks! These poems have the sole aim of making the reader giggle, and have very strict rhyme schemes and other structural features. In this week’s Writing Focus, we’ll be taking a look at these hilarious little poems!

What Is a Limerick?

As mentioned above, a limerick is a poem with a humorous tone to it. For some this can be enough for to class a poem as a limerick, but there are also strict structural features that limericks are usually required to have. They are five-line poems that usually follow an anapestic meter — in other words, they usually have two unstressed syllables follow by a stressed syllable (think of The Night Before Christmas), which creates a rolling style of poetry that just falls off of the tongue. The typically accepted rhyme scheme for limericks is AABBA, which further ties together the whole poem and makes it a delight to read through!

On Mibba, these are the general rules behind limericks. It can sometimes be acceptable to drop the meter, as some cannot write in anapestic meter, but the poem should always have the same rhyme scheme and should always be able to generate a laugh! Limericks are a poet’s way of creating a light-hearted poem.

Tips

Take inspiration from the small things that make you giggle. As limericks have such a small space for you to write in, explaining away massive big jokes is almost impossible. Keeping to smaller, funny topics will ensure that you can bring across the essential elements without having to miss something out because you don’t have the room to keep it!

If you’re having difficulty finding rhymes, then turn to Google! There are many tools online for poets to use to find rhymes and half-rhymes for their own work, so don’t spend hours stressing over it. Just check online, get your rhymes and voila!

Anapest can be difficult to discern when simply written down on paper. If you want a foolproof way to check this, then read your poem aloud once it is completed. If it reads simply and the flow is good, then you’ve probably nailed it. However, if you find it’s difficult to fit the words into the unstressed-unstressed-stressed flow, then you might need to re-word parts to make it easier to read through. Either way, reading the words aloud will help you to decide whether or not you have more work to do.

Prompts

Looking for ways to practice your limerick writing? Check out these prompts designed to help you along the way!

• A man falls down a small flight of stairs, but is not injured. Write a humorous take on the story in the form of a limerick.
• Think about the funniest thing to happen to you this week. Write it into a limerick.
• The object closes to your left hand is your weapon in a zombie apocalypse. Write a limerick showing how useful it is.

Comedy is one of the small gifts that we have in life, and limericks showcase that perfectly through their wonderfully poetic structure! Why not get into limerick writing today?

Special thanks to sindie synclayre and silent hearts. for editing!