Limericks for St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you’ve been enjoying St. Patrick’s Day - Did you get outside? Here’s something read and something to do indoors…

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That is Edward Lear’s most famous limerick but scroll down to see one about Kilkenny and another with a ‘sarpint’ or snake in it. Perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!

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As you can see limericks rhyme and have a great bouncy rhythm. Edward Lear wrote his limericks over a hundred years ago - and they are still as bonkers as ever! They are still fun to write too. Here’s one I’ve written for today. See what you think and then have a go yourself.


St. Patrick’s Day Limerick

There was an old saint called Saint Patrick

Who said, Trinity? Shamrock? A hat-trick?

He had what it takes

And got rid of the snakes

That miraculous saint called saint Patrick!


Now you have a go:

I’ll help you start your limerick, you can fill in the missing bits:

There was an old saint called Saint Patrick

Who…………………………………………………………… -ick

…………………………………………………………………………….. snakes

………………………………………………………………………………… - akes

That …………………………….saint called Saint Patrick!

You’ll need to collect lots of ‘-ick’ rhymes for ‘Patrick’ and ‘-akes’ rhymes for ‘snakes’ so you have lots of choice of what to say in your poem. I find going through the alphabet helps, either in my head or on paper.

Rhymes for ‘Patrick’ include brick, flick, kick, lick, Mick, nick, pick, sick, tick, and wick.

How many rhymes can you find for ‘snakes’?


Saying loads of limericks out aloud is the best way to ‘get’ how to write them - here’s another, the ‘sarpint’ one I mentioned earlier by Edward Lear. He drew the crazy drawings too!

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That old man is getting rid of a snake - just like Saint Patrick!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Send me your poems in the message part of the Contact page if you like. I’d love to see them!


Lucinda Jacob