1. Presentation on Limerick history and poetic structure Emily Johnson

2.  A Limerick is a very short poetic form  It consists of just 5 lines  LIMERICKS are meant to be funny. They often contain hyperbole, onomatopoeia, puns, and other figurative devices. The last line of a good limerick contains the 'punch line' or 'heart' of the joke.  They are not considered ‘cultivated poetry’ usually due to some of the content  Very popular form, even seen in Shakespeare!

3.  Can be traced back to C14th  Originally used as nursery rhymes and children’s poems due to their simple structure  By the C15th, C16th and C17th they were part of adult poetic culture- but the content changed  Due to the bawdy and sometimes rude content they were often heard in pubs recited by drunkards

4.  Limerick is a place in Ireland  They became pub songs in Limerick and people would recite them whilst socialising with their friends  They don’t have to but the first line often refers to a place ‘Will you come up to Limerick?’- hence the name.

5.  Limericks consist of 5 lines- aabba  Lines 1, 2 and 5 have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one another  Lines 3 and 4 have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other

6.  There was a young girl of Dover, Who rushed through a field of blue clover; But some very large bees, Stung her nose and her knees, The pain of which made her fall over.  There was a girl from Koahsiung…

7.  There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, 'It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!‘

8.  Limericks tend to end with humour- ‘Have all built their nests in my beard!’

9. A limerick fan from Australia regarded his work as a failure: His verses were fine, Until the fourth line ?

10. The limerick is furtive and mean, You must keep her in close quarantine, Or she sneaks to the slums, And promptly becomes, Disorderly, drunk and obscene.

11.  Create a Limerick of your own…  Create one that begin with a person and place like the first examples  Then try to create a more abstract limerick with an abstract topic (like the last example)