There once was a grandfather clock

Who didn't have time for tick-tock

Beginning at dawn

Get off of my lawn!

And frightened the kids on the block

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A/N: This poem is dedicated to PoetsPub, for the Fun With Limericks challenge.

A limerick is a lighthearted, usually funny or obscene poem consisting of one stanza of five lines with a rhyme scheme of aabba. Lines 3 & 4 are shorter than lines 1, 2, & 5. It has a distinct rhythm. It is written mostly in anapestic meter, which means, there are two short (unstressed) syllables followed by one long (stressed) syllable in a foot. It is common for a limerick to have a headless verse, which means it lacks the first syllable of the first foot.

A foot is a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables. For example, an iamb consists of one unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable, a trochee is one accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable, and a dactyl is an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables.

The number of feet determine the meter of a poem. In a limerick, lines 1, 2, & 5 have three metrical feet, and lines 3 & 4 have two metrical feet.