A limerick is a five-line poem with a strict form (AABBA), originally popularized in English by Edward Lear, which intends to be witty or humorous.

The standard form of a limerick is a stanza of five lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one another.

Lines 3 and 4 have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other. The first line traditionally introduces a person and a place, with the place appearing at the end of the first line and establishing the rhyme scheme for the second and fifth lines.

Within the genre, ordinary speech stress is often distorted in the first line, and may be regarded as a feature of the form: "There was a young man from the coast;" "There once was a girl from Detroit" Exploitation of geographical names, especially exotic ones, is also common.

The most prized limericks incorporate a kind of twist, which may be revealed in the final line or lie in the way the rhymes are often intentionally tortured, or both. Many limericks show some form of internal rhyme, alliteration or assonance, or some element of word play.

EXAMPLES:

There was an Old Man of Kilkenny,

Who never had more than a penny;

He spent all that money,

In onions and honey,

That wayward Old Man of Kilkenny.

by Edward Lear

There was a young lady from Spain,

Whose man went away on a train,

He always kisses his missus,

And she misses his kisses,

'Till they're both together again.

An infatuated man from Dover,

was left by his imaginary lover.

He pulled his hair,

in sheer despair,

forgetting a wig was his cover.

There is a teacher from Leeds

Who swallowed a packet of seeds

And in less than an hour

Her nose was a flower

And her hair was a bundle of weeds

by Stephen Gallagher

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