The Clerihew was invented by E. C. Bentley.
Who used it to poke fun but only gently.
He'd pick on a personal characteristic
And elaborate without being sadistic.
The Clerihew is a short (4 lines) verse almost always about a person and forming a humorous description of that person.
It is named after the British writer Edmund Clerihew Bentley who was the first to write in this form when he used to produce them for fun as a schoolboy. When published most of Bentley's own Clerihews were accompanied by sketches. At first these were drawn by his schoolboy companion G K Chesterton, himself a well respected writer, and later by Nicholas Bentley.
The structure is deceptively simple
It has exactly 4 lines with a rhyming pattern of aabb
The first line should contain the subjects name, ideally at the end and the third and forth line should refer to some characteristic of the subject.
The rhythm of a Clerihew is often more akin to prose than poetry.
Early Clerihews where much more whimsical than those written today. Their accuracy was also less important.
These are a few of my own.
In her early years, Mrs Thatcher
Gained the sobriquet Milk Snatcher.
But she was called the Iron Lady when
She took control from Number Ten
Treat him with great respect and care.
But his next door neighbour Gordon Brown
Is getting ready to steal his crown.
Is looking for new villains to crush
He's tackled Al-Quaida and Sadam Hussain
Now he's dreaming of new dragons to be slain.
oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Edmund+Clerihew+Bentley
Please don't blame Bentley for the examples here. As someone once said "they are a poor thing but mine own"
Adding your comment:
Thanks for informing about this. I'd never heard of it before and always like to hear about new forms and ways of writing. Take care
This one is so cool.
