LIMERICKS are short sometimes bawdy, humorous, and comedic poems that originated in Limerick, Ireland. Consisting of five lines per stanza, lines 1, 2, and 5 of a limerick rhyme with one another AND lines 3 and 4 rhyme with each other, completing the aabba rhyme scheme.

The rhythm or syllable structure is 9, 9, 6, 6, 9 and better known as anapestic or amphibrachic. Edward Lear is famous for his Book of Nonsense which included the poetry form of Limericks.

Example 1 by Edward Lear:

excerpt from Limerick from the Book of Nonsense

There was an Old Man with a gong,
Who bumped at it all day long;
But they called out, 'O law!
You're a horrid old bore!'
So they smashed that Old Man with a gong.
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Example 2 by Jacquii Cooke:

excerpt from Limerick (about adonis)

I once was a boy named Adonis
At the time, Vietnam war was upon US
Stagnant as name games
Now there’s no shame,
Now I: fem-fatale Pocahontas