Word of the Day - Clerihew

[debodun]

Clerihew (noun) - a light verse quatrain rhyming aabb and usually dealing with a well-known person.

The clerihew was named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley who started writing them when he was a high school student to amuse himself.

 

[CinnamonSugar]

As in:

Candy
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker
?

 

[Dustbunny]

There was a captain named Kirk
He had a bit of a smirk
He bent the rules of the federation
And with the ladies he had a reputation

 

[OldFeller]

There was a captain named Kirk
He had a bit of a smirk
He bent the rules of the federation
And with the ladies he had a reputation

But costars consider him a jerk.

 

[Dustbunny]

But costars consider him a jerk.

Yep. The first poem I wrote had jerk in it, but I thought I would tone it down.

 

[OldFeller]

Yep. The first poem I wrote had jerk in it, but I thought I would tone it down.

It had a limerick format and was begging for a last line.

 

[Dustbunny]

It had a limerick format and was begging for a last line.

I thought I was to follow the clerihew format. 4 lines, about a person, rhyme first two with each other and the next two with each other.

 

[OldFeller]

I thought I was to follow the clerihew format. 4 lines, about a person, rhyme first two with each other and the next two with each other.

I never in my life heard of a clerihew and I don't think the word should ever have seen the light of day.

 

[Murrmurr]

If I remember right, Bentley wrote most of his clerihews about famous people.

Sir Humphry Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.