Limerick (thing)

Meter of Limericks

In considering the meter of a limerick, let us examine a canonical example:

A prostitute living in Kew
Once filled her vagina with glue.
     "Well," she said with a grin,
     "since they pay to get in
They can pay to get out of it, too." 

We can then scan each line with - representing a long (stressed) syllable, u representing a short (unstressed) one, and |demarcating the beginning and end of the foot:

|u   - |u u    -|u   u   - |
 A prostitute living in Kew

|u     -   |  u   u -|u  u     -|
 Once filled her vagina with glue.

     | u       u  -  | u   u   - |
     "Well," she said with a grin,

     | u      u   - | u  u  - |
     "since they pay to get in

|  u   u   - | u  u   - |u  u    - |
 They can pay to get out of it, too." 

(" 'Well,' she said" is technically an amphimacer, but this can be overlooked for our purposes.) The meter thus looks like this:

iamb anapest anapest
iamb anapest anapest
anapest anapest
anapest anapest
anapest anapest anapest

It can therefore be agreed that the backbone of a limerick is the anapest; the difficulty, however, lies in the metrical variation within the basic form. Two variations are allowed for around the basic framework of anapests:

1. A line may begin with either one OR two short syllables; and
2. After the final long syllable of the final anapest in a line, up to two more short syllables may be added, provided that they rhyme.

Both of these principles are demonstrated in the following example:

  | u    - |u  u     -|u   u   -|u
  There was a young lady from Niger.

  | u   -  | u    u  - | u  u  -|u
  Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.

     | u   u -   |   u   u   - |
     They returned from the ride

     |u     u  -|u u - |
     With the lady inside, 

 |u     u -|    u    u  -|  u    u  -|u
  And the smile on the face of the tiger. 

The addition of the final weak syllable on lines 1, 2, and 5 is allowed, since both the added weaks and the required strong ("niger," "tiger," and "tiger") all rhyme. Also, the initial weak syllables ("there," "who," and "and the") are acceptable.

So here is our general form of limericks, with optional beats in brackets:

  [u] u - u u - u u - [u u]

  [u] u - u u - u u - [u u]
  
      [u] u - u u - [u u]
  
      [u] u - u u - [u u]

  [u] u - u u - u u - [u u]

There are few hard-and-fast rules on what is invalid limerick form, the usual judge being what "sounds" right, but it is agreed upon that lines 1, 2, and 5 must have exactly 3 stressed (long) syllables, and lines 3 and 4 exactly 2. Also, beginning a line with more than two weak syllables always sounds wrong. Beginning a line with no weak syllables, and starting right in with the strong syllable, is to be avoided: although possible, it is almost never found in the most successful limericks.

Source: Finley, David. "Limerick Discussion Page." 26 Feb 1999. <http://www.sfu.ca/~finley/discussion.html> Accessed 15 Feb 2003.

Further comments, ideas, criticisms welcome by /msg.