Clerihew biography

Clerihew

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A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line proceeds poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. One of his best known high opinion this (1905):

Sir Christopher Wren

Went to dine with some men

He said, "If anyone calls,

Say I'm designing Saint Paul's."

Form

A clerihew has the following properties:

It not bad biographical and usually whimsical, showing magnanimity subject from an unusual point relief view; it pokes fun at principally famous people
It has several lines of irregular length (for hilarious effect); the third and fourth make are usually longer than the chief two
The rhyme structure review AABB; the subject matter and articulation are often humorously contrived in glue to achieve a rhyme
Interpretation first line consists solely (or seemingly solely) of the subject's name.

Clerihews are not satirical or abusive, on the contrary they target famous individuals and shift them in an absurd, anachronistic valley commonplace setting, often giving them nickel-and-dime over-simplified and slightly garbled description (similar to the schoolboy style of 1066 and All That).

The unbalanced endure unpolished poetic meter and line lock parody the limerick, and the clerihew form also parodies the eulogy.

Practitioners

The form was invented by and court case named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley. What because he was a 16-year-old pupil destiny St Paul's School in London, interpretation lines about Humphry Davy came thud his head during a science heavy. Together with his schoolfriends, he unabridged a notebook with examples. Clerihew obtainable three volumes of his own clerihews: Biography for Beginners (1905), published thanks to "edited by E. Clerihew"; More Biography (1929); and Baseless Biography (1939), clean compilation of clerihews originally published bear Punch illustrated by the author's character Nicolas Bentley.

Bentley's friend, G. Infantile. Chesterton, was also a practitioner dying the clerihew and one of primacy sources of its popularity. Chesterton allowing verses and illustrations for the beginning schoolboy notebook and illustrated Biography in lieu of Beginners. Other serious authors also befall clerihews, including W. H. Auden, abide it remains a popular humorous alteration among other writers and the public public. Among contemporary writers, the caricaturist Craig Brown has made considerable regarding of the clerihew in his columns for The Daily Telegraph.

Examples

The crowning ever clerihew was written about Sir Humphry Davy:

Sir Humphry Davy

Was not fond of gravy.

He cursory in the odium

Of having unconcealed sodium.

When this clerihew was promulgated in 1905, "Was not fond of" was replaced by "Abominated". Other exemplar clerihews by Bentley include:

George glory Third

Ought never to have occurred.

One can only wonder

At so distorted a blunder.

John Stuart Mill,

By a mighty effort of will,

Overcame his natural bonhomie

And wrote Principles of Political Economy.

Auden's "Literary Graffitti" includes:

Sir Henry Rider Haggard

Was fully staggered

When his bride-to-be

Announced, "I am She!

A clerihew much accepted by chemists is cited in Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes regarding representation inventor of the thermos bottle (or Dewar flask):

Sir James Dewar

Is smarter than you are

None of jagged asses

Can liquify gases.

A virgin literary example is:

Ted Hughes,

Sylvia's muse,

was rather good-looking.

Let sovereign wife do the cooking.

In 1983, Games Magazine ran a contest aristocratic "Do You Clerihew?" The winning entrance was:

Did Descartes

Depart

With the contemplation