Clerihew, Poetic Form Exercise Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

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!):

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.

[Guest__*]

Cleopatra
's death couldn't be apter -
drew her last gasp
when she fell on her asp !

Alan McAlpine Douglas

[Cleo_Serapis]

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

[Guest__*]

..... and written just for you .....

Love
Alan  :pharoah2  :tut:  :pharoah2  :tut:  :pharoah2

[Cybele]

Hi Cleo and Alan,

Cupboard is a bit bare here. A little contribution  

the great Charles Dickens
who disliked chickens
declared “Let me loose
On a juicy goose”

Grace  

[JustDaniel]

....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]

~bump for Don

[JustDaniel]

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!

[Guest_Don_*]

~bump for Don

Please explain what this is.

Don  :speechless:

[Guest_Don_*]

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

[Guest_Don_*]

Agatha Christie,
Queen of mystery,
Named the poison
To pick with abandon.

Don

[Cleo_Serapis]

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]

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

[Guest_Toumai_*]

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)

[Guest__*]

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.

[Guest_Toumai_*]

Alan, dahling, thanks for the pointer.

M'wah, m'wah

Fran

[Cleo_Serapis]

Clever! Hint: Get familiar with this form as a CHAOTIC event will be happening soon.... Shock :p

From Gigglepoetry.com (thanks Don):

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.

[Guest__*]

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

[Guest_Don_*]

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]

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