NATIONAL LIMERICK DAY
Celebrated annually on May 12, it is National Limerick Day. This day celebrates the birthday of English artist, illustrator, author and poet Edward Lear (May 12, 1812 – Jan. 29, 1888). Lear is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry prose and limericks.
National Limerick Day also celebrates the limerick poem. Limerick poems were popularized by Edward Lear’s book “Book of Nonsense” in 1846.
A limerick is a very short, humorous, nonsense poem. Within a limerick there are five lines. The first two lines rhyme with the fifth line and the third and fourth line rhyme together.
Two birds on the end of the branch
Watched the farmers wife out on the ranch
In the garden with a smile not a pout
On her knee’s pulling basket-fulls out
The veggies she hoped Mr. farmer would blanch
(written by Jill Magnus)