LIMERICK ABUSE II

I always use limericks to teach meter because most of my students can clearly hear the stressed syllables in limericks. Once they begin to be able to identify which syllables are stressed and unstressed, it’s much easier for them to apply those skills to other types of meter. Yesterday we wrote limericks as a practice exercise. I always do a bunch of extemporaneous examples in class to help them and to show them that it is actually very easy. They are typically inspired by students by my students. I posted last year’s examples; it seems silly not to post this year’s as well.

In a hole in my wall lives a shoe.
You may think that’s a lie but it’s true.
He hasn’t a foot
Within him to put
So he hasn’t a whole lot to do.

There once was a guy, Ricardo.
He was skinny just like a scarecrow.
His weight was so small,
He was likely to fall
Each time that a stiff wind would blow.

Austin’s a student so rare.
He’s lazy beyond all compare.
If he could contrive
A way to survive,
He’d probably stop breathing air.

So there once was this fellow named Steve
Who we thought would never leave.
We begged him each day
To go far away,
But now that he’s gone we all grieve.

So Travis and Indica love
with a passion resembling a shove,
but they say that they hate
and won’t go on a date
till the day that pigs fly up above.