Limerick challenge: your town, your pet or your job

[Darren]

The limerick might be the most fun form in poetry. Five lines, a bouncy rhythm and a rhyme scheme of AABBA, usually building to a daft punchline. Edward Lear made them famous in the nineteenth century, and they have been entertaining people at weddings, in pubs and on birthday cards ever since. They are also one of the few poetic forms that almost everyone can recognise

This challenge is to write a limerick about your town, your pet or your job. Keep it clean and friendly, since limericks have a certain reputation. Puns, awful rhymes and dramatic endings are all encouraged. The more groan worthy, the better

Here is mine, about my dog. There once was a spaniel called Ted, who refused to get out of my bed, and when asked to shift, he gave me a sniff, and stole the whole pillow instead. He is asleep on that pillow as I type this

For anyone who has not tried writing one before, the first, second and fifth lines are longer and rhyme with each other, while the third and fourth are shorter and share their own rhyme. Reading it out loud helps you check the rhythm. If it sounds like a nursery rhyme, you are on the right track

Who will be brave enough to go next? Town, pet or job, the choice is yours