A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley.Greg Ross at Futility Closet has some good examples. He doesn't permit comments overe there, so I will post my own favourite here: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 and metre (for comic effect) The rhyme structure is AABB; the subject matter and wording are often humorously contrived in order to achieve a rhyme The first line contains, and may consist solely of, the subject's name.
Cecil B. De Mille
Much against his will
Was persuaded to keep Moses
Out of the Wars of the Roses.
King William of Orange
ReplyDeleteRhymes only with door hinge
Since possible couplets are very few
Isn't he a good subject for a clerihew?
Your own work? *impressed*
ReplyDeleteThere is a hill in South Wales named Blorenge (pronounced as written) which may come to your assistance in moments of difficulty.
Brian
He's a bit of a sly 'un.
He keeps his best quips
And serves them with gallimaufry and chips.
I cribbed orange/door hinge off Leonard Cohen but that's homage. All the rest is my own work as they used to say at infants school.
ReplyDeleteI'm very honoured by your composition. Glad my surmame isn't Hunt or the end of the second line would rhyme with Elliot Morley.
Back to working on my Deep Purple and Long John Silver clerihews.
Just think, they can put a man on the Moon, but we can't even find a rhyme for 'purple' or 'silver'. And they call it progress.
ReplyDelete