Лимерик – популярная форма короткого юмористического стихотворения, построенного на обыгрывании бессмыслицы, возникшая в Великобритании. Происхождение слова лимерик точно неизвестно, но предположительно
заимствовано из названия хоровой песни ирландских солдат 18 в. «Приедешь ли в Лимерик?» (Лимерик – городок в Ирландии).
Пятистишие классического лимерика (встречаются лимерики, написанные в форме четырехстишия) строится по схеме ААВВА, то есть рифмуются первая, вторая и пятая строки, и соответственно – третья и четвертая.
Преобладает размер анапест, а количество слогов в первой, второй и пятой строках на три слога больше, чем в третьей и четвертой.
Вот традиционная структура стиха лимерика:
di dum di di dum di di dum A
di dum di di dum di di dum A
di dum di di dum B
di dum di di dum B
di dum di di dum di di dum A
Сюжетно лимерик строится примерно так: в первой строке говорится, кто и откуда, во второй — что сделал, а далее — что из этого вышло. Лимерик обычно начинается со слов "There was a...".
Разучивание лимериков помогает научиться говорить по- английски с правильной английской интонацией. Ведь в этих стихах происходит чередование слабых и сильных форм, что чрезвычайно важно для того, чтобы английская речь
звучала естественно.
There was a young lady named Hannah,
Who slipped on a peel of banana.
As she lay on her side,
More stars she espied
Than there are in the Star-Spangled Banner.
The Sultan got sore on his harem,
And invented a scheme for to scare 'em;
He caught him a mouse
Which he loosed in the house
(The confusion is called harem-scarem.)
A nifty young flapper named Jane
While walking was caught in the rain.
She ran--almost flew,
Her complexion did too,
And she reached home exceedingly plain.
There was an old man in a hearse,
Who murmured, "This might have been worse;
Of course the expense
Is simply immense,
But it doesn't come out of my purse."
"There's a train at 4:04," said Miss Jenny.
"Four tickets I'll take; have you any?"
Said the man at the door,
"Not four for 4:04,
For four for 4:04 is too many."
There was a young lady of Kent,
Whose nose was most awfully bent.
She followed her nose
One day, I suppose --
And no one knows which way she went.
There was a young lady of Lynn,
Who was so excessively thin,
That when she assayed
To drink lemonade
She slipped through the straw and fell in.
There was a young lady named May,
Who read a love story each day.
"It's funny," she said,
When at least she was wed;
"I didn't think life was this way."
A man and his lady-love, Min,
Skated out where the ice was quite thin,
Had a quarrel, no doubt,
For I hear they fell out;
What a blessing they didn't fall in!
There was a young lady of Munich,
Whose appetite simply was unich,
"There's nothing like a food,"
She contentedly cooed,
As she let out three tucks in her tunic.
