Requiem
Requiem - form Summary
Limerick's Punchline and Turn
This brief poem is a comic limerick that trades on rhythm, rhyme, and a final punchline. Its tight five-line shape delivers a character sketch of a Southern belle whose patched clothes prompt a witty retort. The sing-song meter and rhyme set up expectations that the closing line subverts with dialectal phrasing, turning what might be embarrassment into breezy, self-aware humor.
Read Complete AnalysesThere was a young belle of Natchez Whose garments were always in patchez. When comment arose On the state of her clothes, She drawled, When Ah itchez, Ah scratchez!
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