Lymerick

There once was a knight who was brave
And he rode on his steed like a wave.
Up and down, up and down,
Bouncing up, down the town
Seeking someone, besides him, to save.

Thank you for reviving this thread, Yes/No.:hurray: I´m a bad limericker myself but I enjoy reading the poems.

I'm glad you enjoy reading these more or less nonsense poems, Danik. I generally like easy-to-read, light poetry.

One of the things I like about poetry is it´s great flexibility as to form and content.
I´ve been learning a lot about it on this site.

You should try a limerick, Danik! However, I don't think I could write a limerick in Portuguese or Spanish for which I know some of the vocabulary. Getting that expected anapestic meter is difficult even for native speakers, but once one can hear the way the poem should sound, these poems are very easy to write.

He was the bravest of all in Olde Britain
The damsels of yore were all but smitten
The knight, he was bold
The night, it was cold
Under his armor his parts were frostbitten

When a knight and his damsel ride there
Where sweet love birds take dumps in their hair v
Then the kingdom will shine
Like good gold in a mine
And the universe hasn’t a care.

I have written two or three limericks in this thread, Yes/No, but for me it´s not so easy. The verses don´t come naturally like it happens with natives. I have to research rhymes first.
There are popular poetry forms in Portuguese too like the trova:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trova- It´s Iberic, not only Cuban, I think

The trova sounds interesting. I can't play the guitar, but writing them may be possible.

Limericks aren't easy. I don't find them hard, but I've written perhaps a thousand of them over the years (or decades). It is easier to write a haiku than it is to write a limerick. I sometimes use rhymezone to look up rhymes. http://www.rhymezone.com/

I looked up "trova con letra" on YouTube and found this collection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gew2...-eQxRJMAR2GW02

These are way more difficult than limericks. They are popular songs. Very nicely done.

Nice selection, Yes/No. It seems in Cuba "trova" is more related to music.
In Portuguese, the term "trova" or "quadra" is applied to simple, four verse poems. They are usually innocent, very often children´s play verse, like this one:
"Batatinha quando nasce
Se esparrama pelo chão
Menininha quando dorme
Põe a mão no coração."
Here is a selection if you want to take a look at it:
http://www.juraemprosaeverso.com.br/...rovaspopII.htm
The limerick or limerique is not an usual form in Portuguese, but one poet, who lives for a long time in US, used it in his poetry. I learned about it on this site.

Those quadras are simple like limericks. I can see a rhyme pattern ABCB. Is there an expected meter also, like iambic? It looks like 4 to 8 syllables per line. That meter would be hard for me to hear since I don't know how the language sounds.

I am not sure, I had to look the Portuguese metric up, it´s different of the English one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre_(poetry)

It seems similar to English, but with the last syllable accented. Here may be a spoken example of a trova, but I'm not sure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_1EDSpz-fE

They remind me of this nursery rhyme but with less childish content:

Mary had a little lamb.
Its fleece was white as snow
and everywhere that Mary went
the lamb was sure to go.

Here is an attempt to write one with 7 syllables per line (Redondilha maior) in English, accenting the last syllable.

Moon and stars without the sun
Shine and sparkle ever bright.
Sun has set though dawn will come
Riding calmness from the night.

Cute poem. Yes, I think that´s it, Yes/No. And also the theme is fitting. But I don´t know if this form is usual in English poetry.

I think it is a kind of common meter, although in general common meter need not end with an accented syllable, but it often does, and the syllable count could be 8 or 7, sometimes even 6. The restrictions of the trova seem to be tighter than those of English common meter. These four line poems with accented first syllable remind me of spells in English although I am unable to find a good example at the moment.

Thinking about this more this morning, I don't think people writing in English write these quatrains any more. They might write haiku if they want something short or they might write limericks if they want something comical or satirical or they might write short "quotes" or deep thoughts about a sentence long without rhyme. But I don't see people, at least on poetry blogs that I look at that, write rhyming quatrains. This is unusual although Emily Dickinson might have done something like that long ago.

I have to look all this better up. The meter part is the most difficult part of poetry for me and a reason, why I seldom write poems myself. Probably Brazilian poets don´t write them any more either. They are a popular form that possibly dates back to the old Portuguese "canções de amor e amigo" sung by the trobadours:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician-Portuguese_lyric
Some examples of quatrains in English poetry:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/res...etail/quatrain

I like quatrains even better than limericks.

I like both forms, but it seems the quatrain is older and has a more inocent tradition, being often use for children´s verse.
I looked the limerick up. Here is the thread, but I suppose you know all that already:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick_(poetry)

I haven't read that article before. I liked the mathematical limerick by Leigh Mercer in that article. Not only did the rhyme and meter have to work, but the equation also. I have looked for other trovas. There is a nice sound to the Brazilian songs that seemed to be associated with "trova". I assume this is more of a romantic form.

As far as I know there are the love songs with the form inherited of the old Portuguese love songs sung by the minstrels and the songs for children. Another popular one:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay_Y_RHSues

Quatrains make simple rhymes for children.

I heard this song yesterday, as a school was celebrating São João nearby. I first thought it was in quatrains:

http://www.kboing.com.br/milene-pavoro/1-1311508/

Sadly the beautiful colored paper balloons had to be forbidden, because of the many accidents they cause today.

It seems like a celebratory song for Saint John based on Google Translate. It does have rhyme on short lines but it might not be broken into sets of four lines.

Here's one I wrote making sure the last syllable was accented and having four lines:

Let us climb these well worn stairs,
Light above and peace throughout.
Heart tells mind, "Don’t worry here.
Love will show us all about."

A song would have three of these with a bridge of some sort.

Nice poem, Yes/No, that could be developed into a song.
I looked up the English poetry tradition, which US sureley inherited:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_poetry
In regard to Brazilian poetry, I don´t know if it is more usual to put the accent on the last syllable or on the one before the last.

There are words like "ending" in English which have the accent on the syllable before the last. I like the sound of those rhymes on two syllables. I think Portuguese like English and Spanish are spoken with accented/unaccented syllables.

I´ll have to look it up, but I think the counting of syllables in poetry is different.

One for Independence Day:

There was a chap in red white and blue
All the folks would say, well, who are you?
I'm Uncle Sam
That's who I am
Doffed his hat and said, How do you do?


https://youtu.be/rdPOAhBp2Ag


Thanks for keeping things in perspective, Jerry.

In that time when a wild, evil thought
Watched me daydreaming. Then I was caught.
How I fought to get free!
How it laughed wickedly
Till a nightmare turned it into nought.

There once was a man named Eldore
Who crashed a department store
Running from his wife
Who chased him with a knife
When his girlfriend moved in next door.

Nice one, EphimTvest!

There once was a dark, dreary night
That gave bloody vampires delight.
Undead zombies would roam
Since they lost their way home
Which is good since they don’t act quite right.

A vampire a ghost and a cat
Went into a bar for a chat
said the ghost with a grin
Puss and I will have gin
Bloody Mary will do for the bat.

Wicked vampires have put me to shame,
Connoisseurs of the best, not the lame.
When they sniff at my blood
They prefer murky mud--
Makes me wonder if I am to blame.

There was a young gal named Irma
Who’s about to meet terra firma
Her brother was Harvey
Handsome and swarthy
They'll both leave damage that’s perma…



…nent

"We'll have cakes and cream for tea"
she said ever so politely.
Alas the cakes went stale
so they decided on ale
and the night went on merrily

After Harvey and Irma we knew
What all hell breaking loose ought to do.
Now we’ve plenty of tea
And stale cakes dunked for free
And too much bloody hell blowing through.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by YesNo

After Harvey and Irma we knew
What all hell breaking loose ought to do.
Now we’ve plenty of tea
And stale cakes dunked for free
And too much bloody hell blowing through.

---

Ahhh, good one! :)

Thank you, kiz paws! Without your limerick and Sancho's this one would not exist.