Limericks with very strict rules ..... 88558

Her Gran flew over from Dublin
With anger seethin' and bubblin'
So red in the face

(A small adjustment to appease MissTree’s rules!)

Her Gran flew over from Dublin
With anger seethin' and bubblin'
So red in the face
At such speedy pace

Her Gran flew over from Dublin
With anger seethin' and bubblin'
So red in the face
At such speedy pace
The problem she found so troublin’

On arrival, what did she find

MissTree

Henetha!
Message from the Limerick Police.

Would you like to come to my counting skool ? I am a star pupil because as I demonstrated yesterday I don’t keep to the rules 88558. It works so much better if we do ?

So pretty please would you count up your last 2 lines again ?

I'm afraid I have to take issue with this. The 8 syllable rule produces a da dum da da dum da da dum rhythm, i.e. the 2nd, 5th and 8th syllables are stressed. With one of the lines in question, i.e. Her granny flew over from Dublin, the stress is as follows:

her gran ny flew o ver from Dub lin (an extra 'da' at the end, hardly noticed)

If you change the sentence to 'her gran flew over from Dublin' you get:

her gran flew o ver from Dub lin. The stress is on completely the wrong syllables. No one would speak this way. This is why an extra syllable has to be permitted in certain circumstances for limericks to read properly. It is not a simple matter of maths, but of syllable stress rules as well.

Apologies for my pedantry, but as much as I hate limericks getting completely out of hand with 10 or 12 syllables per line, as so often seen on the other thread, there has to be some flexibility to accommodate the rules of stress

On arrival, what did she find
An affray that was very mild

Hmm the Limerick Police might say mild doesn’t rhyme with find...but I’ll carry on

On arrival, what did she find
An affray that was very mild
She wished she’d not come

I've just written a hundred lines saying "I must count my limerick syllables correctly"... .
Also, I agree with Juliet27 above..!
Thank you, Bathsheba....[smile}
I'm sort of nervous now, but will carry on regardless....

On arrival, what did she find
An affray that was very mild
She wished she’d not come
But stayed home with Mum

www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-limerick#what-is-a-limerick

From the Masterclass :
“There once was a man from Nantucket.” If you’ve heard a variation of a five-line poem that begins with that line, then you’re familiar with a limerick.

That line has 9 syllables.
There's more to limericks and their rhythm than just counting 8.

Thank you FarNorth, my point exactly.

On arrival, what did she find
An affray that was very mild
She wished she’d not come
But stayed home with Mum
Who always was pleasant and kind

So then Gran thought she'd try a cruise ship

There once were some grans from Hong Kong
Who said that the rhythms were wrong
It was just for fun?
But friends ...... its undone
Just poems that rhyme like a song

???

So then Gran thought she'd try a cruise ship
But she worried about her new hip

I’m getting confused now!

her gran flew o ver from Dub lin

I read the emphasis on o ver and Dub lin ??

So then Gran thought she'd try a cruise ship
But she worried about her new hip
If the ship should pitch

So then Gran thought she'd try a cruise ship
But she worried about her new hip
If the ship should pitch
Or any other glitch

That doesn't work Squiffy because there's only one syllable between gran and over.

The first, second, and final line each have three anapests—da dum da da dum da da dum.
The third and fourth lines have two anapests-—da dum da da dum.
(from a post on page 1 of this thread)

So then Gran thought she'd try a cruise ship
But she worried about her new hip
If the ship should pitch
Or any other glitch
She feared she would totally flip.

The captain was ever so suave

The captain was ever so suave
One word to describe him is 'wow'!!

wow doesn't rhyme with suave

To Bathsheba , Jangran et al

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I’m entirely with you on this ?

Sorry if you thought I was any kind of an expert. I’m not as I have demonstrated ? and I’m quite happy to be corrected . I agree about the stress on the syllables. It’s all about the rhythm and the flow.

I didn’t mean to scare anyone ?. I’m always going wrong myself.

There are already one or two limerick threads so I was thinking that people who don’t mind about the rules might be happy to stay on threads without off- putting titles ( like this one ) .

I don’t know where to go from here. If a line sounds wrong, is coming on this thread an acceptance of allowing someone to ‘ correct ‘ you ? It doesn’t seem right to have a limerick policeman even in jest.

What do people think ?

I like that we are now “ policing “ each other .

What the heck rhymes with suave ? Haha.

'Correct' away - I have no problem with that ...

“The captain was ever so suave
One word to describe him is 'wow” ?

Try ...

The captain was ever so suave
Being foreign he used to say “haave”

Pushing it a bit I know.

If a line sounds wrong, is coming on this thread an acceptance of allowing someone to ‘ correct ‘ you ?

I would say yes to that question. In much the same way as anyone posting on the AIBU forum must expect that some people will say, 'yes, you are being unreasonable'. We don't have to be unpleasant, but if we don't challenge an 'incorrect' line, there's not really a lot of point in this thread is there? It'll just go the way of the other limericks threads. That is to say, it'll just have people posting rhymes, instead of limericks