Limericks

Well, for the second time this week I'm composing poetry. This time around (today being St. Patrick's Day), I'm composing limericks. Limericks have a very defined structure. The rhyming scheme is a strict a-a-b-b-a. And the meter consists entirely of anapaests or (less frequently) amphibrachs.[1] Anapaests consist of two short syllables followed by a long ( ˘ ˘ ¯ ) while amphibrachs consist of a long syllable flanked by short syllables ( ˘ ¯ ˘ ). The first two lines and the fifth line have three metric feet and the third and fourth lines have two metric feet. The last line is usually expected to be funny or clever.[2] Now that you've been properly instructed, let us proceed to my compositions.[3]

So I'm sitting here writing a blog
Full of poems, but my mind's in a fog.

I must make the lines rhyme,

Keep the meter in time—

With an ending that leaves you agog.

It’s dark, dank, and damp in this room.
I pick something up in the gloom.

Now I’m taken aback

As the creature says, ‘Quack!’

Yes, it must be that darn Duck of Doom!

’Twas St. Patricks and I wore not green
(so unthinking while dressing I'd been).

But my scowl made all flinch

Who still thought they could pinch

My ungreenness and get away clean!

And since that's all I've got, I'll go ahead and throw in this drawing I made in Inkscape [4] of a Celtic knot in the shape of a cross.[5]

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Notes:

[1] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick (poetry).

[2] They're technically supposed to be vulgar, too, but I abstain.

[3] Not all of them conform very well to the strict structure of the limerick I lay forth here.

[4] If you're unsure what the program Inkscape is or what it is used for, see my post Raster Graphics and Vector Graphics.

[5] Latter-day Saints (Mormons) acknowledge the cross as the instrument of Jesus Christ's torture and execution, but we do not use it as a symbol of our faith. If you'd like to know more, ask and I might do a full post on the topic.

Image attributions:

Aerial view of Blarney Castle, in Ireland, is by Dalia Gecevičiūtė, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blarney pilis.jpg.