My daughter’s English lessons for this week included an assignment to write a limerick, and I told her that I would write one too. So we did. When I wrote a second one, she did too. And so we both went on, writing one after another until the entire afternoon was gone. She ended up writing twice as many as I. It wasn’t the most productive day in the history of home school, but it was fun. Here are our poems in no particular order. I hope you’ll like them.

 

There was an old cat who said, “Why
Do I so wish to eat that large fly?”
It was buzzing around
As if going to town,
But that old cat dare not even try.

 

R-2 had so feisty a wit
That 3PO could hardly permit
Himself to translate
The things he did state
When someone was being a twit.

 

It started with just a few drops,
But then the clouds pulled out all stops.
The rain, it came down
And drenched half the town,
But the other was too dry for crops.

 

A young man was on his way home
When a red apple fell on his dome.
Said the young man just then,
“I’ll ne’er travel again,
For this happens each time I leave home!”

 

A white phanty* sat inside waiting                [*elephant]
Though it should have been outside parading.
It waited instead
For its ebony friend
For together they were to go skating.

 

A painting was hung on a wall.
It screamed, “I don’t like this at all!
For I’d much rather be
On an easel, you see,
Back there in my home in Bengal.”

 

Sunday and Monday were fun
For the little girl raised by a nun,
But Tuesday, you see,
Was a blues-day, for she
Saw that gloom-clouds blocked out the bright sun.

 

Some chocolates were laid on a table.
(I know this may seem like a fable.)
“Our ruler’s been beaten,
And we’ll all be eaten!”
They cried through emotions unstable.

 

These next two are intended to be read together….

Two lovers walked ‘round a large pond,
And the girl stopped to pick a green frond.
When she plucked up the plant,
It started to rant, Saying,
“That hurt, you ignorant blonde!”

And then the young man got involved,
This problem determined to solve.
Said he, “Leave her be,
Or I’ll crush all your leaves!”
And the wroth plant lost all his resolve.

 

There was a poor lady from Ghent:
Upon seeing the fair she was bent.
When the day came at last,
She was rather downcast,
For the last of her savings was spent.

 

There once was a man named McGuire
Who decided to sing in the choir.
When they asked him to sing
The lead part come next spring,
He began to profusely perspire.

 

There once was a gray mourning dove
Who would perch on the line high above.
When a male dove came near her
And started to cheer her,
Then she cried out, “I think I’m in love!”

 

One day a young sailor named Peter
Saw a girl, and he wanted to meet her.
When at last they were paired,
It was said he declared,
“I have never met anyone sweeter!”

 

There once was a young man named Harry
Who found courting exceedingly scary.
Though it seemed quite absurd,
He could not say a word,
So he figured he never would marry.

 

At some point I decided it was time to move on to the next subject. Then Mary Beth wrote this final limerick:

My mother said, “Do something else now.”
But I am not sure I quite know how.
For I’d rather just stay
And write lim’ricks all day,
Though there’s work that needs to be done now.

 

Copyright © 2018 Mary Beth and Angela Umphers Rueger – All Rights Reserved