Limey! A Limerick!

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Today I was browsing through stacks of book in the library (a dying artform) when I came across a book titled Lots of Limericks. I flipped through it and I enjoyed some of the limericks that I read. Merriam's Online Dictionary defines as 'limerick' as "humorous rhyming poem of five lines." (I had to search for this definition as the other one used "anapestic," which I had never encountered before. It means, "
a metrical foot consisting of two short syllables followed by one long syllable or of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable (as unaware)." 


Edward Lear (1812-1888) is credited with creating the limerick and this succinct and humorous form of poetry has inspired many people to create their own versions. Here is one of his limericks to whet your palette:

There was an Old Man of Peru,
Who never knew what he should do;
So he tore off his hair,
And behaved like a bear,
That intrinsic Old Man of Peru.

Here is a limerick from the book I came across (sadly, we do not know who the author is):

There was a young fellow named Fisher,
Who was fishing for fish in a fissure,
When a cod with a grin
Pulled the fisherman in...
Now they're fishing the fissure for Fisher.