Limericks

Hi Shirley,

Your quatrain is lovely. It seems very deep (like the well that's mentioned in it) and very peaceful at the same time. Thanks for sharing it with us.

You asked about quatrains from other countries. Here's my submission. The poem I've come up with to represent the UK is a limerick.

An earlier teacher blogger, Stephen Keeler, explains what a limerick is.

Stephen Keeler: 'Limerick: an English verse form with five rhyming lines [a, a, b, b, a]. The third and fourth lines have two stresses each, and the others have three. It is usually humorous and features the names of people and/or places'

Stephen wrote a limerick about himself, so I thought I'd try and top him by writing one about you, Shirley! I've copied his idea and bolded the syllables that should be stressed.

So here we go:

There was a young lady called Shirley
Who wanted her hair to be curly
She tried permanent lotions
And all kinds of potions
But her hair wouldn't wave; it stayed surly

I hope you'll forgive me for taking such liberties with your locks, your desire for a different hair style and all the rest of the nonsense here! It's just a bit of fun and I thought it might bring a smile to your face this weekend. Feel free to make up some daft rhyme about me!

And finally, here's a real photo of Willow. Courtesy of her owner – Chloe

Have a good weekend,
Nuala

Vocabulary
deep - showing or needing a lot of serious thought, difficult to understand
come up with – thought about or suggested
top him – do better than him (in a competitive way)
curly – opposite of straight
permanent – an old-fashioned word (usually we'd say perm). A perm is a chemical process that a hairdresser puts on your hair to make it wavy or curly
lotion – cream (e.g. hand lotion or here, perm lotion)
potions – liquid that has special powers. Often in fairy tales, characters drink potions
wave – curl
surly – unfriendly, impolite or in a bad mood (I know you wouldn't usually describe hair as surly but what else could I use to rhyme with Shirley?)

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