The Legend of Lefty Leroux

Posted On March 3, 2026

A Limerick Collection

There once lived a lumberjack named Lefty Leroux

Whose proper first name wasn’t Lefty but Lou

One night Lou drained his flask

Had a fight with his axe

Rendering his right handed digits too few

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One of the many exercises I’ve enjoyed throughout my career as a writer has been exploring the literary world’s wide variety of formats & genres. From poetry to fiction short stories to true life vignettes and more, using my blog as my workshop, I’ve shared with readers my best efforts at all of them.

So, with spring peeking its head around March’s corner and St. Patrick’s Day before us, I thought now would be the perfect time to explore the Irish tradition of limericks.

According to that writer’s tome of tomes, Merriam Webster, with origins traced to Limerick, Ireland & their first known usage in 1895, limericks are defined as:

“a light or humerous (and frequently bawdy) form of five chiefly anapestic verses of which lines 1, 2 and 5 are of three feet and lines 3 and 4 are of two feet with a rhyme scheme of aabba.”

Now, if you’re like me, you read that & went “HUH?!”

Luckily, while Merriam’s dictionary definition seems dauntingly complex, as it turns out, limericks are actually quite simple.

Again, per Merriam Webster, the rather intimidating term “anapestic” simply refers to “the rythm of each line, with an anapest being two short syllables followed by one long syllable or of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable and 1 anapest equalling 1 metrical foot.”

Anapest is further described as having a “da-da-DUM” or “galloping” rhythm, (examples: “In the BLINK of an EYE“, “Twas the NIGHT before CHRISTmas”) which form the heartbeat of the limerick.

To sumarize, a limerick is a light or humerous (sometimes bawdy) five line verse of Irish origin, with lines 1, 2 & 5 being a set of longer rhyming lines and lines 3 & 4 being a shorter rhymed pair, with the entire verse following a da-da-DUM-da da-DUM sort of rhythm. The beauty of all of this being, these limerick “rules” don’t require strict following.

So, thusly armed, I set out to try my hand at crafting some limericks. I set out to write three, ended up penning six (including the one above). As it turns out writing limericks is both addictive and fun!

Below are my remaining limerick endeavors.

I hope folks enjoy them.

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A Gentleman’s Demise

There was a daper gentleman, well dressed, rotund and nice

His portly countenance bursting with balled snow and ice

‘Til the March sun shone one day

And he melted away

Now all that remains are the gentleman’s top hat and pipe

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Hunter’s Stew

There once was a hunter who took great pride in his stew

He filled a big kettle with venison, vegetables and a stout pint or two

One night a bear eyed his pot

Quickly got himself shot

Then ended up getting stirred into the brew

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Hasenpfeffer Heist

The bobcat thought it would be funny

To show off to the coyote his bunny

But the coyote ate the rabbit

Which is a coyote’s habit

Leaving the bobcat neither hasen nor pfeffer for his tummy

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The Misery Mile

A hiker sweated his way up the high peaks’ famed misery mile

He reached Avalanche Lake thinking, “I’ll just sit here awhile.”

But the blackflies ate him alive

As swarming deerflies bomb dived

Chasing him back down the mountainside trail

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Dock Spider Surprise

There once was an outlaw out paddling about

Just tooling along with no particular route

A big dock spider arrived

The canoe then capsized

Leaving the outlaw to wring himself out

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Until Our Trails Cross Again:

ADKO