Line by line Limericks or Limerick-Like Poems

Three dollar gas is a pain
Feels like cash down the drain

 

Three dollar gas is a pain;
Feels like cash down the drain.
So I walk 'til my feet hurt,

 

Three dollar gas is a pain;
Feels like cash down the drain.
So I walk 'til my feet hurt,
And I'm covered with dirt,

 

I wish I could plug in my car
I tried once and got this big scar

 

I wish I could plug in my car
I tried once and got this big scar
Now I'm called scar-face
Reminding the Human race

 

I wish I could plug in my car
I tried once and got this big scar
Now I'm called scar-face
Reminding the Human race
The beat of this lim'rik doth mar!



A lim'rik which doth not mar...


There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket
But his daughter, named Nan
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket

There once was a Prius from Jersey

 

There once was a Prius from Jersey
That suddenly went topsy-turvy
Using more gas

 

There once was a Prius from Jersey
That suddenly went topsy-turvy
Using more gas
Than a black hole has mass
Pamela Anderson sure is curvy!

(I wasn't sure if I was supposed to rhyme "Jersey" or "turvy".) <_<

<strike>There once was a lawyer named Alberto</strike>
Sorry about that- I sure couldn't think of a word that rhymes with "Alberto"!
Let's try again:

There once was a man named Rove

 

There once was a man named Rove
Who's name actually rhymed with love

 

There once was a man named Rove
Who's name actually rhymed with love
It was very confusing
What was he musing?

 

If there's one thing that I can't stand
I put it in an equation with NAND

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ Apr 3 2007, 11:36 AM) [snapback]417174[/snapback]</div>

Jared, I am certainly no expert in limerickery, I thought they had to follow the syllables as well as the beat of the Nantucket example. I was wrong as some quick research shows the beat is important, but no mention of syllables. BTW No one ever called me Aunt Bee, so I leave it to the more experienced for further comment.
FYI of participants, here are some things I found:

http://www.poetry-online.org/limericks.htm
Limericks - The form
Limericks consist of five anapaestic lines.
Lines 1, 2, and 5 of Limericks have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one another.
Lines 3 and 4 of Limericks have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other.


http://www.sfu.ca/~finley/discussion.html
Rhyme Scheme

Limerick must have five lines with aabba rhyme scheme. This much is well known.
Rhythm

The beat must be anapestic (weak, weak, strong) with three feet in lines 1, 2, and 5 and 2 feet in lines 3 and 4. This will be explained further below. However the following exceptions are allowed:

The first foot of an line may have only one weak beat in front of the strong beat.

Trailing weak beats that continue the rhyme are allowed at the end of the each line. Naturally these sounds must be identical over rhyming lines.

The following covers most cases, where S equals a strong beat, w indicates a weak beat, and the brackets indicate that the beat is optional. Note that on the same line, different strong beats are always separated by exactly two weak beats. The options apply only to the leading and trailing beats.

Lines 1,2,5: w [w] S w w S w w S [w] [w]

Lines 3,4: w [w] S w w S [w] [w]

Restriction on Rhyming Beats.

The last strong beats in the lines must rhyme (125 and 34) and the any weak beats at the end must match and must have the same sound over rhyming lines. Limericks with two weak beats at the end are less common than those with one or none. In poetry books, single beat rhymes are called masculine rhymes; two-beat rhymes are called feminine rhymes. A combination of wwS is called an anapest; a combination wS is called an iamb.
Beginning weak beats

Note that each line can start with either one or two weak beats. Various writers have proposed special restrictions (such as requiring just one weak beat at the start of lines one and two, or requiring matching the initial number of weak beats over certain lines), but all such restrictions fail the empirical test of describing what good anthologies and recognized masters have produced.


caution the following link has sound:
http://www.limericks.org/pentatette/whatis.htm
What is a Limerick?
To be a Limerick, a verse MUST have:

Five lines

Lines one, two, and five MUST each have exactly three metric feet

Lines three and four MUST each have exactly two metric feet

The metric feet MUST be anapests ( da da DUM ) although the leading foot of each line may be an iamb ( da DUM) and the last foot of each line may have a trailing unaccented syllable ( da da DUM da). The classic Limerick is consistent in the use of iambs and trailing unaccented syllables, but this is not mandatory in recreational Limericks.

Lines one, two, and five MUST rhyme

Lines three and four MUST rhyme

A good Limerick will have a clever, unanticipated punch line as line five

A good Limerick will not be insipid or pointless

A good Limerick often has puns, word play, eccentric spelling, or some other witty feature

Any nonsense poem that lacks five lines, thirteen metric feet, or the aabba rhyme pattern is simply not a Limerick. It might be a sing-song or a la-de-da, but it's not a Limerick.