A Bag of Tricky Limericks

Open up your bag of tricks! People use this idiom when they are talking about revealing special talents or skills to accomplish a task. Back in the late seventeenth century, a bag of tricks referred to the sack that a traveling magician carried around the countryside. Today, Poetry on Parade opens up a twenty-first century bag of tricks, celebrating Poetry Friday with funny little poems called limericks.  Limericks are five-line verses with special rhyme and rhythm patterns.  When we read or hear a limerick, we notice that the rhyme always follows an A-A-B-B-A pattern--and that the rhythm always sounds like da DUM da da DUM da da DUM. Today's first two poems were created by Edward Lear, a nineteenth-century English writer famous for nonsense verse and clever limericks:

There was an Old Man in a Barge,

Whose Nose was exceedingly large;

     But in fishing by night,

     It supported a light,

Which helped that Old Man in a Barge.

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!

Sometimes, poets find place names to rhyme in their bag of tricks. Edward Lear chooses a European country, and Douglas Florian uses the capital of Idaho (and the tongue-twisted Garden State!) to get the rhythm and rhyme moving in these limericks:

There was an old lady of France,

Who taught little ducklings to dance;

     When she said, "Tick-a-tack!"-- 

     They only said, "Quack!"

Which grieved that old lady of France.

--Edward Lear

There was a young woman from Boise

Whose sneakers were squeaky and noisy.

     She set them to boil

     In sunflower oil,

Then she jogged all the way to New Joisy.

--Douglas Florian

When we're writing limericks, picking a person name to rhyme is another very good trick! Today's next poem, from The Hopeful Trout and Other Limericks by John Ciardi, uses a far-out name to create a limerick that's out of this world:  

 It Came from Outer Space

There once was a Martian named Zed

With antennae all over his head.

     He sent out a lot

     Of di-di-dash-dot

But nobody knows what he said.

Rhyming names and word play, the A-A-B-B-A rhyming pattern, the da DUM da da DUM da da DUM beat: put it all together, and we find clever limericks in our Poetry Friday bag of tricks!  We took a walk through the halls of Lafayette and discovered lots of rhyming possibilities, plenty of limerick rhythm, and some silly stories to tell:

Fourth Grade Food Crisis

The classroom of Mrs. M. Kelly

ate nothing but toast and grape jelly.

     'Til a student named Sam

     said, "We're in quite a jam.

I'm going to buy ham at the deli.

Fifth Grade Getaway

The wonderful students of Yates

vacationed in all fifty states.

     They drove to Nebraska,

     then flew to Alaska,

and wandered Wyoming on skates.

Open up your Poetry Friday bag of tricks, Poetry Paraders, and let's share some limericks!