Analysis of Limerick: There was an Old Sailor of Compton

Edward Lear 1812 (Holloway) – 1888 (Sanremo)



There was an Old Sailor of Compton,
Whose vessel a rock it once bump'd on;
The shock was so great,
that it damaged the pate,
Of that singular Sailor of Compton.


Scheme ABCCA
Poetic Form Tetractys  (60%)
Cinquain  (20%)
Metre 111110110 110011111 01111 111001 1110010110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 166
Words 33
Sentences 2
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 5
Lines Amount 5
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 124
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

10 sec read
125

Edward Lear

Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author and poet, and is known now mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. more…

All Edward Lear poems | Edward Lear Books

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    Who wrote the nonsense poem Jabberwocky?
    A Lewis Carroll
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