[John Isbell]

I think the main thing is to invent the form, which works perfectly in English. Lear's main problem in limerick-writing - to the extent I can say that about the guy who invented them - is that his vision involved repeating the first line at the end, which kind of kills the onward thrust and misses some golden opportunities. Thus, more or less:

There was an old man with a beard
Who said: It is just as I feared!
Two owls and a wren
A lark and a hen
Have all made their nests in my beard.

That closing beard kind of thuds. Tweaking the form to allow a new rhyme was IMO brilliant.

There is at least one limerick in French:

Il etait un jeune homme de Dijon
Qui n'avait que peu de religion
Il dit: Quant a moi
Je deteste les trois
Le pere, et le fils, et le pigeon.

Cute, but you have to explain it after reciting it to anyone French. The form is not intuitive.

Update: just to say the Blues similarly took a turn when someone thought to vary the repetend and rhyme it instead of repeating the entire line. Dylan for instance does this constantly, but you certainly see it in the Chicago Blues. Here's Dylan:

I ride on the mail train baby, can't buy a thrill;
I've been up all night, leaning on your windowsill, and so forth.


Cheers,
John