A Word About Limericks - The Anapest

As I've discussed before in a post back on May 13th, the limerick is composed of five lines: Two long, two short, one long. To state that more accurately, lines 1,2 and 5 consist of three anapestic feet, while lines 3 and 4 have only 2 anapestic feet.

But what is an anapest? Simply put, the anapest is the basic building block of a limerick and is responsible for the familiar bouncy meter we find in limericks. An anapestic foot is a three syllable section, beginning with two unstressed syllables followed by an accented syllable.

(blah-blah-BLAH)