What are limericks? How should we read them?

1. What are they?

2.  Named after the city of Limerick, Ireland.
 Limericks (the poems) are short and
amusing. Many are at least a little naughty.
A limerick is a five-line poem.
 The rhyme pattern is a a b b a.
pattern a is a triplet,
pattern b is a couplet.
 A limerick is read in chunks.

3. The limerick is furtive and mean
You must keep her in close quarantine
Or she sneaks to the slums
And promptly becomes
Disorderly, drunk and obscene.
 What kind of figurative language is being used?
 What is the limerick being compared to?

4.  Read the following limericks:
A flea and a fly in a flue
Were caught, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "Let us flee."
"Let us fly," said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
A student was sent to Tacoma
Intending to earn a diploma
He said, “With the rain,
I don´t want to remain.
I think I´d prefer Oklahoma.”

5.  Limericks should be read with a chunk pattern:
A flea/ and a fly/ in a flue/ - triplet (a)
Were caught,/ so what/ could they do?/ - triplet (a)
Said the fly,/ "Let us flee."/ - couplet (b)
"Let us fly,"/ said the flea./ - couplet (b)
So they flew/ through a flaw/ in the flue./ - triplet (a)
Anonymous
A student/ was sent to/ Tacoma/ - triplet (a)
Intending/ to earn/ a diploma/ - triplet (a)
He said,/ “With the rain,/ - couplet (b)
I don´t want/ to remain./ - couplet (b)
I think/ I´d prefer/ Oklahoma.”/ - triplet (a)
Gilbert, Judy B (2005) Clear Speech.
Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension
in North American English. Cambridge: New York, N. Y.

6.  Maybe the most well-known source of
limericks is The Book of Nonsense by
Edward Lear.
(James Miller edition, 1875)

7. “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!'

8. A man, while drinking Light Bud,
Crashed his car with a sickening thud,
The car that he hit,
Had a warlock in it,
now he lives as a frog in the mud.

9. Limerick: A Historic Town, An Amusing Little Poem - Read on For a Little
of Both!
<http://www.irish-expressions.com/irish-limericks.html>
Limerick (poetry)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick_(poetry)>
Limericks, chunk pattern from Victor Diaz
<http://www.slideshare.net/VictorDiaz14/limericks-chunk-pattern>
The Write Stuff: Limericks from Kimberly Coleman
<http://www.slideshare.net/kimberlycoleman/the-write-stuff-limericks>