Tell it who the limerick is about and the funny, true things about them, and Hemmingway writes the five lines, rhymed AABBA, with the joke kept for the end. Read it out. If a line trips your tongue, ask for that line again.
The jokes come from your facts. It will not invent an embarrassing story or a habit the person does not have, which matters when they are in the room as you read it.
What makes it work
- Give line one a good rhyme word. A limerick often ends its first line on a name or a place, and two more rhymes have to follow it. Crewe, Leeds and Kent are easy. Wolverhampton is not. If the name is hard, offer a nickname or a street.
- Hand over the funniest fact and let it wait. Line five is the punchline. One true, specific thing, like missing your own leaving do, beats three vague ones.
- Tease the habit, not the person. Always late, never buys a round, argues with the satnav.
- Say where it will be heard. A leaving card at work and a stag weekend are different jobs. Tell it which, and it sets the tone to match.
An example
Asked for a gently teasing limerick for a party, about a brother called Callum from Crewe who is turning 40, is always late, once missed his own leaving do and blames the ring road, a limerick along these lines is what to expect:
A fellow called Callum, from Crewe,
who once missed his own leaving do,
said, "Don't look at me,
it's the ring road, you see."
He'll be late for his fortieth too.
Tap it out as you read: three beats in the long lines, two in the short ones.
A limerick is short enough to write inside a card. For the message that goes around it, there are the birthday message generator and the farewell message generator.
Common questions
Is the limerick generator free?
Yes. Hemmingway has a free trial with no card needed, and this tool opens it with your answers filled in. You sign up once, and the limerick is written in the chat.
What is the rhyme scheme of a limerick?
AABBA. Lines one, two and five share one rhyme and are longer, with three beats each. Lines three and four are shorter, with two beats, and rhyme with each other.
Does a limerick have to start with "There once was"?
No. That opening is a habit, not a rule. Any first line works if it has the bounce and ends on a word with plenty of rhymes.
Can it write a clean limerick for children?
Yes. It keeps things clean unless you ask otherwise. Say the child's age and give it a pet, a teacher or a wobbly tooth to work with. For other verse, see the poem generator.
Will it sound like AI?
It is built not to. Hemmingway-1, the model behind it, came first on sounding like a person in our own blind test, Human-Likeness. Say it aloud once before the party and redo any line you stumble over.