I love limericks. They are five line poems written with one couplet and one triplet. The rhyme pattern is  “a a b b a” with lines 1, 2 and 5 containing 3 beats and rhyming, and lines 3 and 4 having two beats and rhyming. Some people say that soldiers returning from France to the Irish town of Limerick in the 1700’s invented the limerick. Here are some examples:

There once was an old man of Lyme

Who married three wives at a time

When asked “Why a third?”

He replied, “One’s absurd!

And bigamy, Sir, is a crime.”

There was a young fellow named Hammer

Whose had an unfortunate stammer

“The b-bane of my life”

Said he, “Is m-m-my wife

D-d-d-d-d-d-damn ëer!”

She made friends with a young undertaker;

Her last boyfriend had forsaken her.

But she started to curse

When he turned up in a hearse.

She said next time Iíll date a baker!

There was a young lady named Constance,

From boys she wouldnít stand any nonsense.

If her partners grew deft

She would lead with her left;

The results would not weigh on her conscience.

My sweetheart and I are just wed.

Already I wish I were dead.

Two weeks sheís been spending.

It was time never ending.

We are thousands of pounds in the red!

Limericks are fairly easy to write if you can rhyme well. Have fun and send them into me for publication on iNews.