Yup!!! I can do limerick!!!

Yes, at first I did not know what was limerick, how to do one, and am I capable to do a limerick? These questions come to mind when we was taught about it.

Well, for those who do not have idea what is limerick, here I give you a brief description about it (of course this description is taken from our course book). A limerick is a five-line poem written with one couplet and one triplet. If a couplet is a two-line rhymed poem, then a triplet would be a three-line rhymed poem. The rhyme pattern is a b b a with lines 1, 2 and 5 containing 3 beats and rhyming, and lines 3 and 4 having two beats and rhyming. Some people say that the limerick was invented be soldiers returning from France to the Irish town of Limerick in the 1700’s. Limericks are meant to be funny. They often contain hyperbole, onomatopoeia, idioms, puns, and other figurative devices. The last line of good limerick contains the PUNCH LINE or “heart of the joke.”

There you go! It is a brief description about limerick. This limerick activity is very good to be conducted as group as it will promote creativity, cooperation, exchanging ideas and respecting others’ opinions (give and take). As to this activity’s response, the class move quickly and why don’t you try this with good Form 1 class first.

Well, now, let me share to you the steps on how we (as a group of 5) created a limerick as our class activity. First of all we need to name a place. As for my group, we chose Taiping. Then, for the last word of the second line of the limerick, we need to find any word with the same rhyming to the first word we chose (Taiping). At this stage, we come out with our friend’s name who is Siew Ching. Notice that the rhyming of Taiping and Siew Ching are the same? Then, using the examples and templates given, we complete the blanks with our own rhyming words. We complete the limerick as if we are telling a short funny story about someone. It our case, is a story about an old man from Taiping. Don’t forget that a limerick suppose to be written in past tense form. This is what we produced in couples of minutes.

There once was a man from Taiping,
All the while he hoped to marry Siew Ching,
So he went to propose to her in town,
And she coldly turned him down,
That poor old man from Taiping.

Here is our limerick! Well done!