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Limerick

limerick · form · validated

Five lines rhyming AABBA, the third and fourth notably shorter than the other three, usually comic in register. Only the rhyme scheme is checked: neither the anapestic metre nor the shorter middle couplet is scanned.

Provenance

  • Source: Traditional; popularised by Edward Lear, A Book of Nonsense (1846)
  • Attribution: traditional — classical or folk; no single origin to name
  • Checkability: self — decidable from the text and its parameters alone
  • Attested: codified — formulated as a rule by a tradition rather than declared by an author

Details

  • Kind: restrictive
  • Languages: en
  • Requires: tokens, phonemes
  • Deterministic: yes
  • In other languages: Limerick (de), Limerick (fr)

Notes

Only the rhyme scheme is checked: _check calls form_report with scheme="AABBA" and no metre, so the anapestic metre and the shorter middle couplet the definition names are never scanned. stress was declared for that unimplemented half and is removed rather than kept as an aspiration a caller cannot see is unreached.

Prompt hint

Write five lines rhyming AABBA with the middle two lines shorter.

Parameters

Name Type Default Description
unknown_rhyme string undecidable What a line ending absent from the pronouncing dictionary means: leave the pair unscored (undecidable), let it satisfy the scheme (free), or fail it (strict).

Examples

lear-beard

en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.

there was an old man with a beard
who said it is just as i feared
two owls and a hen
four larks and a wren
have all built their nests in my beard

Source: Edward Lear, A Book of Nonsense (1846); Lear rhymes 'beard' with itself, which strict practice counts a fault

distinct-rhymes

en — this text satisfies the procedure.

there was an old man with a beard
who said it is just as i feared
two owls and a hen
four larks and a wren
have all flown away and disappeared

Source: constructed example

aabba

de — this text satisfies the procedure.

der Wandrer zieht durch jenes weite Land
das Feuer brennt und wärmt die kalte Hand
der Wandrer sieht ein Licht
der Bote spricht es nicht
die Blume welkt im Schatten an der Wand

Source: constructed example

aabba-fr

fr — this text satisfies the procedure.

Il y avait un chat nommé Amour
Qui cherchait le bonheur toujours
Il prit un jour un chemin
Et partit tôt le matin
Et rêva de son retour

Source: constructed example

rime-b-rompue

fr — this text does not satisfy the procedure.

Il y avait un chat nommé Amour
Qui cherchait le bonheur toujours
Il prit un jour un chemin
Et partit dans le froid gris
Et rêva de son retour

Source: constructed counterexample