Cleo_Serapis
Sep 12 03, 06:01
The Clerihew is a comic light verse, two couplets in length, rhyming aabb, usually dealing with a person mentioned in the initial rhyme.
It was named for its originator, Edmund Clerihew Bentley, an English writer, who wrote the following example at age sixteen:
Sir Humphrey Davy
Detested gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.
*Courtesy of Bob's Byway http://www.poeticbyway.com
From Gigglepoetry.com (thanks Don!):
QUOTE
Clerihews have just a few simple rules:
They are four lines long.
The first and second lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines rhyme with each other.
The first line names a person, and the second line ends with something that rhymes with the name of the person.
A clerihew should be funny.
That's it! You don't have to worry about counting syllables or words, and you don't even have to worry about the rhythm of the poem.
Cleopatra
's death couldn't be apter -
drew her last gasp
when she fell on her asp !
Alan McAlpine Douglas
Cleo_Serapis
Sep 26 03, 05:34
QUOTE (Alan @ Sep. 26 2003, 02:42)
Cleopatra
's death couldn't be apter -
drew her last gasp
when she fell on her asp !
Alan McAlpine Douglas
LOL!
Very funny! :jester: :jester: :sun: :sun: :dance: :dance:
~Cleo (reincarnate)... :pharoah2
..... and written just for you .....
Love
Alan :pharoah2 :tut: :pharoah2 :tut: :pharoah2
JustDaniel
Nov 8 03, 09:55
....and I believe they're to be outrageously uneven in meter?
Huge Hugh Hughes as a suitor quite failed.
It was not his size his intended assailed.
Yet his sweet Clara Belle knew she had to refuse!
Could she lower herself to become another o’ them Clara Hughes?
Cleo_Serapis
Jul 30 05, 09:11
~bump for Don
JustDaniel
Jul 30 05, 09:39
Now who’s in the sack and was bumped here to see?
Will he come out today? Can he ever be free?
Watch out, though, man, ‘cause that handle can snag;
so prep for the trip. It’s Don-in-the-bag!
QUOTE (Cleo_Serapis @ July 30 2005, 10:11)
~bump for Don
Please explain what this is.
Don :speechless:
QUOTE (JustDaniel @ July 30 2005, 10:39)
Now who’s in the sack and was bumped here to see?
Will he come out today? Can he ever be free?
Watch out man, ‘cause that handle can snag;
so prep for the trip. It’s Don-in-the-bag!
Man.....you are a jack-in-the-box to be on top of this.
Don
Agatha Christie,
Queen of mystery,
Named the poison
To pick with abandon.
Don
Cleo_Serapis
Jul 30 05, 10:11
hahahahahah!
Don - that's a smilie peeping out from his bag....
A BUMP is just my way of moving a tile to the top...
:D :p 
JustDaniel
Jul 30 05, 10:19
And after watching 'Jessica Fletcher' in dozens of my wife's favorite show:
That’s All She Wrote
that nosey mystery solver
who produced, then dropped a revolver
fell down on the spot;
it seems she found what she sought
Some real gems in here 
This is one from a friend of Seamus's (with permission):
Jey's Fluid
would have puzzled a druid.
They never disinfected
the buildings they erected.
Note: Jey's Fluid is a brand of disinfectant
Fran (on behalf of Seamus)
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Not all the verses above are clerihews - Daniel is right, they specialise in bumpy rhythm, but the main point is that the first line ends in the person's name, which is then rhymed in the second line.
The next two should offer some reason or explanation.
My Cleo one and Grace's Dickens are truely clerihewn.
Let's see if I can make one up
The frumptious Fran Martel
would be no mere man's chattel :
such a one would be a real sad freak
should he eshew, or worse, miss, her feminist streak !
Nina Simon
would never eat gammon
'deed, her repeated boast :
she ingests nothing but dry(-ish) toast.
Not very good, but they have the form.
Love
Alan
PS It has been suggested that the above clerihew about Fran calls her "frumpy". Well, frumptious and frumpy may share several letters, but are NOT related. Indeed, I have completely failed to find a def for frumptious, either on internet, or in the 2 huge dicts I have here, incl the Greater Oxford.
It may be a Alice in Wonderland word, I seem to recall, but when I wrote it, I was of course using alliteration, and intended it to mean gorgeous, attractive, vivacious, etc ec, all complimentary, and nothing derogatory at all.
Alan, dahling, thanks for the pointer.
M'wah, m'wah
Fran
Cleo_Serapis
Jul 30 05, 13:41
Clever! Hint: Get familiar with this form as a CHAOTIC event will be happening soon.... Shock :p
From Gigglepoetry.com (thanks Don):
QUOTE
Clerihews have just a few simple rules:
[*]They are four lines long.
[*]The first and second lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines rhyme with each other.
[*]The first line names a person, and the second line ends with something that rhymes with the name of the person.
[*]A clerihew should be funny.
That's it! You don't have to worry about counting syllables or words, and you don't even have to worry about the rhythm of the poem.
Dear Cleo,
Here is one I wrote last year :
CLERIHEWN
Edmund Clerihew, Mister Bentley,
a man who refused to write too pungently,
invented instead the sweet clerihew;
and exclaimed for posterity, "This'll do !"
Alan McAlpine Douglas
Love
Alan
QUOTE (Alan @ July 30 2005, 14:47)
Dear Cleo,
Here is one I wrote last year :
CLERIHEWN
Edmund Clerihew, Mister Bentley,
a man who refused to write too pungently,
invented instead the sweet clerihew;
and exclaimed for posterity, "This'll do !"
Alan McAlpine Douglas
Love
Alan
Hi Alan,
VERY appropos.
Don
JustDaniel
Jul 30 05, 14:36
Here's another site that gives a good history of the 'form' too:
Clerihew
It is true, of course, that traditionally, the first line ends in the name of the subject, but many have been known to include the name within the first line or the second line. I would suggest that it is not a hard and fast 'rule' methinks... though I predict that the coming challenge may require it.
So Alan, please note that my last Clerihew is indeed gunuine, since I IDENTIFIED the mystery person without giving her name -- apropos for a mystery writer, don't you think?
I must hasten
to write a Jason,
since my middle name is not Clerihew;
with this line my discussion is through.
Lightly, Daniel 
Response to Pandora's Challenge
MM MEMBER
Pretty lady Grace
can crit without a trace
of malicious attitude,
she has never been rude.
Pretty lady Grace,
her wrists adorned in lace,
picks up her pen, a poem to write,
and pictures, what a sight!
MM MEMBER
Funny lady Nina
who writes from a cantina,
is friendly as she can be
to all of you ... and me.
Funny lady Nina
she dreamed of ballerinas,
now when she writes a bit prose
she stands upon her toes!
MM MEMBER
Feisty ole Just Dan'
is really quite the man.
I love the way he teaches
with cute little poetic speeches.
Feisty ole Just Dan'
he'll help you all he can.
With a well-trained poetic mind
he leaves the gunk behind.
FAMOUS PERSON
The popular Madonna
spent too much time in sauna,
now she's red and slightly pruned
as she stands on stage to croon.
FAMOUS PERSON
Miss Agatha Christie
who's heart beat rather friskie
at the frightening crime she sat to pen,
for her perps were all young men.
FAMOUS PERSON
Oh, to be President Bush
and sit upon your tush,
to delegate the meanest chores
and run for four years more.
(No offense intended. I know he does much more! LOL)
BOOK CHARACTER~from Murder, She Wrote
That Mrs Jessie Fletcher
the killer has yet to ketch 'er.
She 'id inside the darkened room
and felled 'im with 'er broom!
BOOK CHARACTER~from Moby Dick
The crusty Captain Ahab
intended just a jab
but delivered quite a shocking stick
when he stopped ole Moby Dick.
BOOK CHARACTER~from Horton Hatches the Egg
Poor, poor Horton
thought about abortin'
the nest that made him rather sad
before becoming "dad".
Cathy Bollhoefer~
copyright Aug2005
Hi Cathy
You have written a great set of clerihews Cathy with warm gentle humour that is most chucklesome.
thank you
Nina
Dear Cathy,
Very well done.
Don
Cleo_Serapis
Aug 13 05, 11:46
Book Character
Oh Romeo!
Romeo,
what he didn't know...
if only he waited to learn the truth
he could've become a fine sleuth!
School Teacher
Mrs. Good
My second grade teacher Mrs. Good
tried to find ways to harass (as she could)
but what she didn't know all along
we were actually singing her song!
Famous Person
Eric Bana
You soared over HULKing in Troy, Eric Bana,
as Hector, you bulked more than Indiana
Jones we all know; Will your career take you higher
or will your role choices make them dire?
Hi Cleo,
Interesting to say the least. The last one confused me, but I got the gist.
Don
Cleo_Serapis
Aug 13 05, 12:29
QUOTE (Don @ Aug. 13 2005, 13:19)
Hi Cleo,
Interesting to say the least. The last one confused me, but I got the gist.
Don
Hi Don.
Eric Bana played the lead role in the movie HULK, which aired before the movie TROY.
Personally, I think he did a much finer job in Troy as Hector. 
:lovie:
Indiana Jones is the character played by Harrison Ford in the Radiers of the Lost Ark trilogy from the 80's. 
Cheers!
~CLeo
Cleo_Serapis
Aug 13 05, 12:31
a few more:
Book Character
Robert Langdon
Harvard Symbologist Robert Langdon was key
to uncover a Masonic decree -
and found more than bargained for in the scripts
of 'Angels & Demons', the Vatican crypts!
Famous Person
Orlando Bloom
As legolas, a blonde Orlando Bloom
the Elf-man saved Middle Earth from doom
But as Paris in Troy,
he was more like a boy.
crypts does not ryhme with midst.
Don
Cleo_Serapis
Aug 13 05, 13:09
QUOTE (Don @ Aug. 13 2005, 14:06)
crypts does not ryhme with midst.
Don
Oops! :upside: :blush21: :oops:
I've changed it to scripts....
TY Don :grinning:
QUOTE (Cleo_Serapis @ Aug. 13 2005, 14:09)
Works for me.
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