A limerick is a verse form of five lines. WIth a rhyme scheme AABBA. So the first, second and fifth lines rhyme as do the third and fourth. Normally comic and being generally descriptive the fifth line normally offers both a punch line and twist to the tale.
My favorite (modified for non-natives)
A wonderful bird is the pelican
His bill can hold more than his belly-can
He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week
But I'm damned if I see how the hell-he-can
Oh, no... I didn't think to save it, and a Google search isn't finding it for me. It might have been something like this:
There once was a man from Milwaukee,
Whose limericks were quirky and pawky;
But at Su.Ki.'s behest,
And specific request,
He reposted this one on Italki.
So nice limirick. Here I have one:
One day a young girl from Baghdad
Went on a trip with her dad,
She cooked him some fish
She burnt the whole dish,
That's probably whey he went mad.
Well, I'm impressed...
A talented man called Dan Smith
Whose erudition is more than a myth
Responded with zeal
To SuKi's appeal
And penned a new lim'rick forthwith!
Hi Phil,
Of course it isn't a true story. In fact I found it in the English curriculum book for Iraqi students.
Here is another one:
There was an old man from Brazil
Who suddenly felt very ill,
'Oh I've eaten that pie,
I think I will die.
Or may be I'll just take a pill.
Two famous ones:
There was an old man from Sudan,
Whose limericks never would scan;
When they said "But the thing
Doesn't have any swing,"
He said "It's because I always like to put as many syllables into the last line as I possibly can."
There was also a lady from China,
Whose feeling for rhythm was finer:
Her limericks tend
To come to an end
Quite suddenly.