Clerihew
A Clerihew is a comic verse consisting of two couplets and a specific rhyming scheme,
aabb invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) at the age of 16. The poem
is about/deals with a person/character within the first rhyme. In most cases, the first
line names a person, and the second line ends with something that rhymes with the name
of the person.
One of the most remembered Clerihew from Bentley's collection is:
Sir Humphrey Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.
Example #1
Garfield the cat
On his rear he sat.
Eating lasagna galore
All about the decor.
Copyright © 2000 James & Marie Summers
Example #2
The Road Runner
always almost a goner;
when attacked in manner dread,
Wile E. suffers intended fate instead ....
Copyright © 2004 Alan McAlpine Douglas
Example #3
Star Trek's frowning Klingon Worf
challenges a squeamish metamorph
to eating a wormlike gagh dinner;
Worf of course was the winner!
Copyright © 2004 Diana Dalton
Example #4
Corporal Klinger,
M.A.S.H.'s best ringer
in dress, heels and sneer,
won "Kook of the Year."
Copyright © 2004 James Dean Chase
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