DIY Homeschooler

On May 12, 1812, Edward Lear was born. His most famous poem, “The Owl and the Pussycat,” was written in 1867, and the term “runcible spoon” has been finding its way into dictionaries ever since.

Edward Lear has been considered second only to Lewis Carroll in coining nonsense words, but he was second to none in writing limericks.

Table of Contents

• Lear & Limericks
• What Makes a Limerick a Limerick?
• Suggestions

Lear & Limericks

Lear did not invent the limerick. No one knows exactly where this ingenious little ditty came from, although some poetry experts insist they see hints of it in medieval songs and in Shakespeare’s works. Be that as it may, the first collection of true limericks did not appear until 1821, and the form never really caught on until Lear published A Book of Nonsense in 1846.

After A Book of Nonsense came out, newspapers and magazines began holding limerick contests and publishing the winning poems, increasing the form’s popularity. People have since experimented with limericks in a variety of ways, writing them in Latin, using them to poke fun at politicians, and even using them as memory aids in physics classes. But the original purpose of the limerick is still the same — telling silly, lighthearted stories to pass away the time.

What Makes a Limerick a Limerick?

Limericks are easy to identify. The first, second, and fifth lines all rhyme and have a “da DUM da da DUM da da DUM” rhythm. The third and fourth lines also rhyme and have a “da DUM da da DUM” rhythm. To borrow an example from Edward Lear himself:

There was an Old Person whose habits

Induced him to feed upon rabbits;

When he’d eaten eighteen,

He turned perfectly green,

Upon which he relinquished those habits.

In this poem you can see two variations on the standard practice that were unique to Lear. Notice that he used the same word at the end of the first and fifth lines instead of choosing two different rhyming words. Also notice that unlike most limericks today, the first line does not end with a proper noun.

There is much flexibility in limerick-writing as long as you stick to the basic rules of rhyme and rhythm. These two rules are what make limericks so catchy. Maybe the physics students were onto something!

Suggestions

Have your students do one or more of the following:

• Copy one of the limericks from A Book of Nonsense onto Drawing and Writing paper.
• Illustrate the limerick.
• Recopy the limerick, but change the words to form a limerick of your own. (Be sure to keep the rhyme and rhythm.
• Our (rather lame) example:
  • There was an Old Man of the Coast,
    Who placidly sat on a post;
    But when it was cold he relinquished his hold,
    And called for some hot buttered toast.
  • To:
    There was an Young Boy of the Coast,
    Who joyfully climbed up a post;
    But when it got hard, he slid down like lard,
    And called for some hot buttered toast.

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Further Investigation

Edward Lear
Brief biography at SurfNetKids.com.

Activities

Limericks
Very helpful explanation and illustration at ReadWriteThink.org.

Limerick Factory (archived)
Interactive at Annenberg Learner. Just select the phrases; this one is preset to follow the correct pattern.

Free Rhyming Tool
For those who get stuck!

Books

A Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear
This is still our favorite version, retaining the drawings of Lear himself. (The bad reviews refer to the free Kindle version that was released without pictures!) Also available free online.

Example of a Physics Limerick:

The classic example of the independence of the x- and y-motions in projective motion is the “hunter and monkey” problem. In it, a hunter aims an arrow at a monkey hanging from a branch in a tree. The monkey, thinking he’s being clever, tries to avoid the arrow by letting go of the branch right when he sees the arrow released. The unfortunate consequence of this action is that he will get hit, because gravity acts on both him and the arrow in the same way; they both fall the same distance relative to where they would have been if there were no gravity. And the monkey would get hit in such a case, because the arrow is initially aimed at him.

If a monkey lets go of a tree,

The arrow will hit him, you see,

Because both heights are pared

By a half gt^2

From what they would be with no g.

Introduction to Classical Mechanics With Problems and Solutions by David Morin

Unit Studies & Lesson Plans

Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense: A Little Nonsense (archived)
Lesson plan from the National Endowment for the Humanities that uses “The Owl and the Pussycat” as the basis for learning poetic devices.

A Limerick by Edward Lear
Activities from our Online Poetry Anthology.

“The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear
More from our Online Poetry Anthology.

14 Forms of Writing for the Older Student: Limericks
More helps and resources in our writing series.

Printables & Notebooking Pages

Owl and the Pussycat Coloring Page
From illustrator Jan Brett.

Limericks
Simple notebooking pages for wrapping up with space for limerick writing or copywork, and a biography sheet for Edward Lear.

These units have been created specifically with do-it-yourself (DIY) homeschoolers in mind: those that don’t want a lot of hand-holding. If this doesn’t describe your need, you might prefer a few of these pre-planned units. For those brave souls who enjoy pulling things together themselves, there are many ways to use these resources!