What is a Limerick?

9th May 2020

Learn how to write a short poem in English!

In this blog post, Louise explains a little bit about limericks.

A limerick is a short poem with just five lines. It’s thought that limericks first appeared in the UK in the early 18th century. They are usually quite funny and are meant to make people laugh. With just 5 lines, they are easy to write and follow a simple pattern:

• Lines 1, 2 and 5 have the same rhyme and rhythm.
• Lines 3 and 4 rhyme with each other too.

Here is an example of a limerick:

There once was a man from Wales

And every day he used to eat snails

They made him quite sick

And he used a toothpick

To get their shells from under his nails.

As you can see, it doesn’t matter if the limerick doesn’t quite make sense. The main thing is that it rhymes and is funny.