Dakota Beacon

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, or so the saying goes. In mid-March, the last month of winter, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Although never raised to the level of a national holiday, still, on St. Patrick’s Day everyone claims a wee bit o’ Irish.

Whether celebrating the old saint himself or engaging in other multidimensional celebrations, St. Patrick’s Day commemorates Irish contributions to the world. Indeed, in the spirit of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the entire month of March must be designated “Irish Awareness Month.”

Irish culture recognizes more than shamrocks, leprechauns, and green beer. Music, literature, textiles and, more recently, technological products from Ireland’s burgeoning industry flow from the Emerald Isle.

A small but pleasant Irish gift comes in the form of a poetic format enjoyed by generations of people. Enter the limerick. This rhyme style took its name from Ireland’s county and town -- Limerick. Here is a classic example of a limerick penned by American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes.

                        The Reverend Henry Ward Beecher

                        Called the hen the most elegant creature.

                                    The hen, pleased with that,

                                    Laid an egg in his hat--

                        And thus did the hen reward Beecher!

For the sake of formality, here is the definition of a limerick. This is a verse form composed of five lines rhyming “aabba” of which the first, second and fifth are trimeter and the third and fourth dimeter. The dominant rhythm is anapestic, and the final line is often a repetition or varied repetition of the first. Ugh! So much for the cold and sterile definition.

Appealingly, limericks are simply light verse, a loose term for poetry written with gaiety, elegance, and wit about very trivial matters. As such, the limerick is the only English stanza form used exclusively for light verse. Limericks are typically comical, often nonsensical, and frequently bawdy.

The limerick enjoys an obscure history. The form may have originally appeared in France. Irish mercenaries, fighting in all the armies of Europe during the fifteenth century, returned with the adopted verse form as their own.

Legend has it that during periods of revelry between battles Irish soldiers made up rhymes about encounters with people and places. At the end of each rhyme everyone would join the chorus: “When we get back to Limerick town ‘twill be a glorious morning.”

By the eighteenth-century Irish poets were committing limericks to writing. The first collection was published about 1820. The unquestioned expert in the form, Edward Lear, published an illustrated book of limericks in 1846 titled “The Book of Nonsense.”

In time, other writers employed limericks in their compositions including such notables as Tennyson, Swinburne, Kipling, and Stevenson.

So popular was the limerick in the early 20th century that verses whose authors were never known received wide oral circulation.

Try a fun St. Patrick’s Day game composing a limerick within a limited time. See just how creative you can be.

Remember, limericks may be ribald but clean and usually include puns and other plays on words. The theme is trivial or playful and written to amuse and entertain with nonsense and wordplay.

I composed this limerick in less than three minutes.

                        There was a Norwegian named Sven

                        Who Ole asked “Where have you been?”

                                    Sven answered quite brisk,

                                    “Eating good lutefisk

                        At the Lutheran church in the glen.”

Now, it is your turn. Try it.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).