Limericks are great
By watersprite
@watersprite (168)
January 9, 2012 6:11am CST
I've just come second in a limerick writing contest (no prizes just for fun), if the judges though it was that good, I may as well share it. Hope you get a laugh from it.
There was a young lady called Mae West
Who was famed for the size of her chest
She came down with flu
Gave a big sneeze "Atchoo"
And that was the end of her vest
1 person likes this
2 responses
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
9 Jan 12
The limerick is quite a strict and regular format. You need to pay careful attention to the metre. Perhaps you might have won first prize if your first line had been:
"A lady whose name was Mae West"
The metre of the Limerick is often in 6/8 time (if it were set to music). Tecnically, it uses either anapaestic metre (from the Greek meaning "struck back" ... two unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed one - "da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM") or amphibrachic ("both arms" ... where a stressed syllable is sandwiched between two short ones - "da DUM da da DUM da da DUM"). Your limerick is in the latter form.
The limerick has five lines with the rhyming pattern: AABBA and the first, second and last line have eight or nine syllables (three 'feet') while the third and fourth have five or six syllables (two 'feet').
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
9 Jan 12
Your third line would also have been better as: "Came down with the flu"
@watersprite (168)
•
9 Jan 12
Totally agree, I had to slide a couple sylables around to make the words work out with this one, to be honest I wasn't expecting great things from it. Clearly it's better to enter competitions / post online and get lovely constructive feedback, than to leave it 99% perfect in the back of my mind :)
@starsailover (7829)
• Mexico
14 Jan 12
Hi water sprite: I have read your text and I have found it really funny. This is a really nice creation and I have enjoyed reading it even if it's a little bit short. Thanks for sharing and have a nice day.
ALVARO
