So my question is: what is the essence of a limerick?
Some sites will tell you it *must* be 9/9/6/6/9, a rhyme pattern of AABBA, and the following beats:
da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
The Soup lists 7-10 syllables for the A lines, and 5-7 lines for the B lines
A7 would be:
Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
A8 could be
da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
or
Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da
A9 could be
da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
or
da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da
A10 can pretty much only be:
da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da
B5 could be:
da-Dum-da-da-Dum
or
Dum-da-da-Dum-da
B6 could be:
da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
or
da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da
and B7 is like A7 above.
But my question remains: what are the essential elements? It seems that it is the main beats:
Dum Dum Dum
Dum Dum Dum
So is this a limerick?
Three blind mice
Don’t look twice.
Black cat
Sees that;
Sure tastes nice!
Or if the essence is expressed A7, the two ‘da’ beats between each ‘Dum’ beat, then why is a B4 not allowed?
Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
Dum-da-da-Dum
Dum-da-da-Dum
Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum
For instance:
Anxiously they crossed the road
Car came fast, it never slowed
I heard a splat
Well, that was that
Man did that frogger explode
That sounds like a limerick to me
For a contest, I guess anything stipulated in the contest is legit, but the limerick essence is what’s interesting to me.
Thoughts?