Monday, February 14, 2005

Valentine's Limerick

I received a very nice Hallmark web card from a very lovely lady, and I wanted to send one back. But, I couldn't just send a reply... I decided to put some effort into writing a limerick to enclose!

I've written more limericks in the time I've been on Orkut than ever before in my life. For me, the best ones are slightly personalized - mentioning an event that occured, or some information they've shared with me. If possible, the limerick should have a flirty tone, or at least have a funny ending line - humorous tone is key. In this case, my friend told me of a dinner she had with another guy, where they went to a pizza place and had calzones. Also, she really enjoys fireplaces, especially on cold winter nights. So with all that in mind, I came up with:


Before Valentine's Day does expire
I hope that you get your desire
A tasty calzone
And a man of your own
To curl up with in front of the fire!


The rhyme scheme of a limerick is AABBA, and the typical meter is 8-8-5-5-8.

I write a limerick by either: 1) thinking of an A line, and then looking at rhymes using a rhyming dictionary, or 2) thinking of the BB lines and filling in the rest, using the rhyming dictionary. Often in case 2, the last A line will easily follow the BB lines. Since the BB lines are short, there are more restrictions on what they can be, so it helps me to iron those out first. In any case, it really helps me to see a list of rhyming words. As I look through the list, I can think of sentence fragments, and work them into the right form.

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