National Limerick Day

What is a Limerick?

A limerick is a silly poem with five lines. They are often funny or nonsensical. Limericks were made famous by Edward Lear, a famous author who wrote the "Book of Nonsense" in the 1800's. This was an entire book of silly limericks.

12th May 2021

National Limerick Day

Read aloud and clap your hands!

There was a young lady from Niger, Who smiled as she rode on a tiger. They came back from the ride With the lady inside, And the smile on the face of the tiger

A poet whose friends called him Steve Once showed quite a will to achieve His skill grew so strong That his poems grew long And he sadly was forced to abbrev.

As 007 walked by He heard a wee spider say, “Hi.” But shaken, he shot It right there on the spot As it tried to explain, “I’m a spi ...”

Quiz time

Let's check what you've learnt!

Summing up...

1. A
2. A
3. B
4. B
5. A

the RHYME SCHEME is:

RHYME

Limerick

is a SHORT POEM, originated in Ireland, tells a funny STORY, it is made up of 5 LINES with a REGULAR STRUCTURE

LINES 1, 2 HAVE 8 SYLLABLES, 3, 4 HAVE 5 SYLLABLES AND LINE 5 HAS 8 SYLLABLES

SYLLABLES

The 1st line introduces the character, the 2nd gives more details, 3rd and 4th tell the story and the 5th is the conclusion.

STORY

Limericks often contain the following devices:

IDIOM

PUN

HYPERBOLE

ONOMATO-POEIA

an expression with a fixed meaning different from the individual words

a word which sounds like the thing it represents

deliberate exaggeration for effect

a play on words

Now it's your turn to write a Limerick!

click on the precious notebook

Watch the video to learn something more...