Holiday of the Week: Like Limericks?

By Christopher Wong, Chief Editor

Inhaling through her clownish exterior respiratory organ, a student ponders ideas for a limerick.

The reason to smile today

Limerick Day, shout hooray!

Though quite inconsequential

But a teeny bit special

I don’t have permission from Jose.

Today, Friday, May 12th, is Limerick Day. Limericks are nonsense poems consisting of five lines and a specific rhythm. The first, second, and fifth lines rhyme and use the same amount of syllables. The third and fourth lines are shorter and use the same amount of syllables. The resulting poem should sound like this, albeit with more nonsense and gibberish:

da-DA-da-da-DA-da-da-DA

da-DA-da-da-DA

da-DA-da-da-DA-da-da-DA

The exact origins of limericks are unclear, but some suspect that the name got its roots from a 1700s Irish soldiers’ song, “Will You Come Up to Limerick?” The first known collection of the goofy form of prose is Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense, published in 1846. Lear supposedly received inspiration for the limerick from a nursery rhyme that began with, “There was an old man of Tobago.”

I haven’t written a limerick since 3rd grade, so this was quite the challenge. If you have a creative mind and a sense for nonsense, send in your limerick by clicking here for a chance to have your limerick published.