The Lass in the Tam O'Shanter, Limerick Options

[Maggie]

The Lass in the Tam O'Shanter

The lass in the red tam o'shanter
is lively with her bar room banter.
She will tell a joke
that makes tough lads choke.
Village folk say she's a great enchanter.

Peggy Carpenter Harwood

[Marc-Andre Germa...]

Peggy, I think you should try a scansion of your own limerick, indicating the syllables you would stress in usual conversation, first the keyword and then the stressed syllable(s) in pollysyllable words.

First, an accentual scan:

A lass in a red tam o'shanter

Then accentual-syllabic:

A lass/ in a / red tam/ o' shan/ter
iamb/phyrric/iamb/iamb (we don't count the feminine ending as a foot in scansion.)

Of course, you most probably meant

a lass/ in a red/ tam o shan/ter
iamb/anapest/anapest

...which works alright in the third foot as the primary stress is on "shan" and "tam" the secondary one...but would you really place the emphasis on "red" and "shan" in normal speech? And aren't most tam o'shanters red? I'd understand the stress, the emphasis, on the colour if it were a more unusual one.

In L3, I'd expect "she will tell", but the way the line scans I take it that you want to put the emphasis on the fact that she will tell a joke....(even though...?)

L5 just won't scan right whatever way we pronounce the line; if you're to use iambs in a limerick, keep them for the first foot of a line only.

I hope this helps,

Mark