A Clerihew (or clerihew) is a very specific kind of short biographical humorous verse.
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Structure and style
A Clerihew has the following properties:
- It is biographical and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; it pokes fun at mostly famous people
- It has four lines of irregular length (for comic effect); the third and fourth lines are usually longer than the first two
- The rhyme structure is AABB; the subject matter and wording are often humorously contrived in order to achieve a rhyme
- The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of the subject's name.
Clerihews are not satirical or abusive, but they target famous individuals and reposition them in an absurd or commonplace setting, often with an over-simplified and slightly garbled description (similar to the schoolboy style of 1066 and All That).
The unbalanced and unpolished poetic meter and line length parody the limerick, and the clerihew form also parodies the elegy. In Poetry, the meter or metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse. A limerick is a five-line Poem with a strict form originally popularized in English by Edward Lear. The term " elegy " was originally used for a type of poetic meter ( Elegiac metre but is also used for a Poem of mourning from the Greek
Practitioners
The form was invented by and is named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley. E C Bentley ( July 10, 1875 &ndash March 30, 1956) was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century As a 16-year-old student at St Paul's School in London, Bentley invented the clerihew on Humphry Davy (see below) when the lines came to his mind during a science class,[1] and it was a great hit with his friends. St Paul's School is a boys' Independent school, founded in 1509 by John Colet. The first use of the word in print was in 1928. [2] Clerihew published three volumes of his own clerihews, including Biography for Beginners (1905), which was published under the name "E. Clerihew". [1]
Bentley's friend, G. K. Chesterton, was also a practitioner of the clerihew and one of the sources of its popularity. Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936 was an influential English writer of the early 20th century Chesterton provided the illustrations for Biography for Beginners. [1] Other serious authors also produced clerihews, including W. H. Auden,[3] and it remains a popular humorous form among other writers and the general public. Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973 ˈwɪstən ˈhjuː ˈɔːdən who signed his works W
Examples
The first ever Clerihew was written about Sir Humphry Davy:
- Sir Humphry Davy
- Was not fond of gravy. Sir Humphry Davy 1st Baronet FRS MRIA (17 December 1778 &ndash 29 May 1829 was a British Chemist and inventor
- He lived in the odium
- Of having discovered sodium. Sodium (ˈsoʊdiəm is an element which has the symbol Na( Latin natrium, from Arabic natrun) atomic number 11 atomic mass 22 [4]
When this Clerihew was published in 1905, "Was not fond of" was replaced by "Abominated".
Other classic Clerihews included:
- Daniel Defoe
- Lived a long time ago. Daniel Defoe (1659/1661 — April 24, 1731 was an English Writer, Journalist, and Pamphleteer, who gained enduring fame for
- He had nothing to do, so
- He wrote Robinson Crusoe. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (of York Mariner Who lived Eight and Twenty Years all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America near the Mouth
- George the Third
- Ought never to have occurred. George III (George William Frederick 4 June 1738 George III's long reign was marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdom much of the rest of Europe and places
- One can only wonder
- At so grotesque a blunder. [5]
- John Stuart Mill,
- By a mighty effort of will,
- Overcame his natural bonhomie
- And wrote Principles of Political Economy. John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential [6]
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Was passionately fond of roe. Edgar Allan Poe (January 19 1809 – October 7 1849 was an American poet, short-story Writer, editor and Literary critic,
- He always liked to chew some,
- While writing anything gruesome.
- "No, Sir," said General Sherman,
- "I did not enjoy the sermon;
- Nor I didn't git any
- Kick outer the litany. "
- Sir Christopher Wren
- Said "I am going to dine with some men. Sir Christopher Wren ( 20 October 1632 &ndash 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English Designer, Astronomer
- "If anybody calls,
- "Say I am designing St Paul's. St Paul's Cathedral, is the Anglican Cathedral on Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, and the seat of the Bishop of London. "
- Sir James Dewar
- Is better than you are
- None of you asses
- Can liquefy gasses![7]
- Edmund Clerihew Bentley,
- Was evidently
- A man
- Who couldn't get his poems to scan. Sir James Dewar FRS ( September 20, 1842 &ndash March 27, 1923) was a Scottish Chemist and Physicist E C Bentley ( July 10, 1875 &ndash March 30, 1956) was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century
In 1983, Games Magazine ran a contest titled "Do You Clerihew?" The winning entry was:
Did Descartes
Depart
With the thought
"Therefore I'm not"?
Among the runners-up were:
Mrs. This article is about a US puzzle magazine For the UK computer and video games magazine see GamesTM. " la Cogito ergo sum " (I think therefore I am sometimes misquoted as la Dubito ergo cogito ergo sum (Latin "I doubt therefore I think therefore I am" Steve Lawrence
Has an abhorrence
For junk food-you might say
She's a gourmet. SUP YALL This is about the singer/actor For other uses see Steve Lawrence (disambiguation. Junk food is a broad term that is used to describe a variety of Food products from Sweets that contain little to no Nutritional value to products used in Gourmet is a cultural ideal associated with the Culinary arts of fine food and drink or Haute cuisine.
Labor Leader Jimmy Hoffa
Apparently refused an unrefuseable offer
It is widely feared
That he just disappeared
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c Gale, Steven H. James Riddle ("Jimmy" Hoffa ( February 14, 1913 - disappeared July 30, 1975, exact A dactyl is a poetic foot of the form >-- (ON-off-off For example matador realize cereal limerick etc (1996). Encyclopedia of British Humorists: Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese, p. 139. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0824059905.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ O'Neill, Michael (2007). The All-sustaining Air: Romantic Legacies and Renewals in British, American, and Irish Poetry Since 1900, p. 94. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199299285.
- ^ BBC - h2g2 - Sir Humphry Davy FRS (1778 - 1829)
- ^ By Edmund Clerihew Bentley. Freeman, Morton S. (1997). A New Dictionary of Eponyms, p. 50. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195093542.
- ^ By Edmund Clerihew Bentley, from Biography for Beginners. Swainson, Bill (ed. ) (2000). Encarta Book of Quotations, pp. 642-43. Macmillan. ISBN 0312230001.
- ^ Peterhouse: Petreans - The Peterhouse newsletter
- Teague, Frances. "Clerihew" in Alex Preminger and T. V. F. Brogan, eds. , The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993. 219-220.
Dictionary
clerihew
-noun
- A rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line.
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