First, you must understand how to arrange your limerick in meter (rhythm) and rhyme (rhyme). The standard form is a stanza (poem) of 5 lines with the first, second and fifth lines rhyming with each other in three feet of three syllables while the third and fourth lines rhyme different than the others and are two feet of three syllables. Got it?
Probably not. Neither do I...I just know how to write the darn things. Anyway, the rhyme scheme is AABBA - all As rhyme and all Bs rhyme. Easy enough.
The meter however, is a bit harder (and sometimes I toss the meter to the wind because I hate being constrained on a literary leash, so to speak). It is an accented pattern of double weakly stressed syllables. Still no help, right? I know...I hate meter.
Basically the meter is:
1 dah-DUT-dah-dah-DUT-dah-dah-DUT
2 dah-DUT-dah-dah-DUT-dah-dah-DUT
3 dah-DUT-dah-dah-DUT
4 dah-DUT-dah-dah-DUT
5 dah-DUT-dah-dah-DUT-dah-dah-DUT
Now that we know the rhyme and the meter, we need to find a friend of which we can ridicule in verse...humorously or even rudely. I think we can all agree the best limericks are funny and maybe a little rude (or crude...or lewd...or nude...you get the idea).
NOTE: Though you may be tempted to start your limerick with "There once was a man/woman/dog/cat/etc from Nantucket", don't. All the good rhymes for that have already been written.
OK...so now you should be ready to write your very own limerick. I have taken the liberty to write one for Shiloh and Shasta since this is my guest post for them.
A Limerick for Team Beaglebratz
by Oz the Terrier
There were Shiloh and Shasta the Beaglebratz Team
Who got a lofty idea and started to scheme.
Their plan is quite loopy,
To be a novelist like Snoopy,
By writing 1,000 blog posts by the end of 2014.
CHALLENGE to Shiloh and Shasta: For one of your 1,000 posts, write a limerick using the process in this post. You can write it about anyone (except if they are from Nantucket).
CHALLENGE #2 to everyone leaving a comment: Can you leave your comment in the form of a limerick? Even a bad one? (And for Frankie & Ernie, no two lines of a limerick and giving up! I know you CAN write a limerick!)
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