Despite their (almost always realised) potential for doggerel, I like limericks.
Definition:
A limerick is a poem, typically in anapestic meter (two short syllables, one short syllable, which gives it a sort of jaunty feeling, suitable for comedic verse), with five lines in a strict rhyme scheme AABBA.
Example:
There was once a good database of them, Limerick DB, which was set up by xkcd's Randall Munroe. It has since been taken down / died so the link points to a copy on The Internet Archive.
Has anyone written any limericks? It's the kind of thing that even someone who doesn't write any other kind of poetry can pull off. Do you think they're tawdry? A bit old-fashioned? Non-English limericks? Is there anything in your culture that has a similar or different feeling?
I like this Ogden Nash limerick. I used it often when I was a bartender to seem more sophisticated than I actually was: There is something about a martini 'ere the dining and dancing begin And to tell you the truth It's not the vermouth I think that perhaps, it's the gin