A Clerihew (or clerihew) is a very specific kind of humorous verse, typically with the following properties: Verse is a writing that uses meter as its primary organisational mode, as opposed to prose, which uses grammatical and discoursal units like sentences and paragraphs. ...

• The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of a well-known person's name
• The verse is humorous and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; but it is hardly ever satirical, abusive or obscene
• It has four lines.
• The form was invented by and is named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley.

E. C. Bentley (July 10, 1875 – March 30, 1956), was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century, and the inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics. ...

Examples

The first ever Clerihew:

Sir Humphrey Davy

Abominated gravy.

He lived in the odium

Of having discovered sodium.

Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Worked swiftly if not gently,

Tracking murderers down by a hidden clew

In whodunit and clerihew.

Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Mused, when he ought to have studied intently;

It was this muse

That inspired clerihews.

Edmund Clerihew Bentley

was evidently

a man

who could not get his verses to scan

Karl Gustav Yung, Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy (December 17, 1778 - May 29, 1829), often incorrectly spelled Humphrey, was a Cornish chemist. ... General Name, Symbol, Number sodium, Na, 11 Chemical series alkali metals Group, Period, Block 1, 3, s Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 22. ... E. C. Bentley (July 10, 1875 – March 30, 1956), was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century, and the inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics. ... E. C. Bentley (July 10, 1875 – March 30, 1956), was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century, and the inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics. ... E. C. Bentley (July 10, 1875 – March 30, 1956), was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century, and the inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics. ...

Was very well hung,

A fact which annoyed,

Sigmund Freud.

Sir Karl Popper

Perpetrated a whopper

When he boasted to the world that he and he alone

Had toppled Rudolf Carnap from his Vienna Circle throne.

(by Armand T. Ringer)

Sir Christopher Wren

Said, "I am going to dine with some men.

If anybody calls,

Say I am designing St Paul's."

John Stuart Mill,

By a mighty effort of will,

Overcame his natural bonhomie

And wrote 'Principles of Political Economy'.

Daniel Defoe

Lived a long time ago

He had nothing to do so

He wrote Robinson Crusoe

Johann Sebastian Bach

was fond of saying, "Ach!"

And instead of saying "Guten Morgen"

He played the Toccata and Fugue on the organ!

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Lived upon venison;

Not cheap, I fear,

Because venison's dear.

(credited to Louis Untermeyer)

George the Third

Ought never to have occurred.

One can only wonder

At so grotesque a blunder.

What I like about Clive

Is that he is no longer alive.

There is much to be said

For being dead.

Google Reader's

built with electrons and leptons, meters and liters.

We're off dealing with those particles

so we can bring you your articles.

(maintenance page on http://www.google.com/reader/lens/)

Clerihews are occasionally not about a particular person, as in this example by Bentley: Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH, FRS (July 28, 1902 – September 17, 1994), was an Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. ... Rudolf Carnap (May 18, 1891, Ronsdorf Germany - September 14, 1970, Los Angeles) was a philosopher, active in central Europe before 1935, and in the United States thereafter. ... Moritz Schlick around 1930 The Vienna Circle (in German: der Wiener Kreis) was a group of philosophers who gathered around Moritz Schlick when he was called to the Vienna University in 1922, organized in a philosophical association named Verein Ernst Mach (Ernst Mach Society). ... Christopher Wren by Godfrey Kneller, 1711. ... St Pauls Cathedral is a cathedral on Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, and the seat of the Bishop of London. ... John Stuart Mill (May 20, 1806 – May 8, 1873), an English philosopher and political economist, was an influential classical liberal thinker of the 19th century. ... Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660 [?] â€“ April 1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ... Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday by Carl Offterdinger Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1719 and sometimes regarded as the first novel in English. ... Johann Sebastian Bach (21 March 1685 O.S. – 28 July 1750 N.S.) was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together almost all of the strands of the baroque style and brought it to its ultimate maturity. ... The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is the name of two different pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach: BWV 538 and BWV 565. ... Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (August 6, 1809 - October 6, 1892) is generally regarded as one of the greatest English poets. ... Venison is the term for the meat of deer. ... Louis Untermeyer (1885 - 1977) was a United States author, writer and editor. ... George III (George William Frederick) (4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain, and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ... Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive Another Robert Clive was formerly British ambassador to Japan. ... Google Inc. ... Properties The electron is a fundamental subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. ... In physics, a particle is a lepton if it has a spin of 1/2 and does not experience the strong nuclear force. ... The metre, or meter (symbol: m) is the SI base unit of length. ... The liter (spelled liter in American English and litre in Commonwealth English) is a unit of volume. ... In particle physics, an elementary particle is a particle of which other, larger particles are composed. ... Look up article in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... E. C. Bentley (July 10, 1875 – March 30, 1956), was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century, and the inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics. ...

The Art of Biography

Is different from Geography.

Geography is about Maps,

But Biography is about Chaps.

This is really a meta-Clerihew, as Clerihews are mini biographies. Sir Thomas Malory wrote the most famous fictional biography of the Middle Ages with Le Morte dArthur about the life of King Arthur. ...

The World's Shortest Clerihew

"To the Poetry Editor of the New Yorker" was composed, over breakfast, by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, in honor of Howard Moss, poet, critic, and editor of poetry at The New Yorker. Despite or because of the poem's brevity, Auden and Kallman manage to rhyme the names of three different people. The poem was discovered years after Auden's death in a manuscript notebook donated by his heirs to the New York Public Library. It has apparently never been printed in The New Yorker: Christopher Isherwood and W.H. Auden, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907–September 29, 1973) was an English poet. ... Chester Kallman (7 January 1921 – 18 January 1975) was an American poet, librettist, and translator, best known for his collaborations with Igor Stravinsky Kallman was born in Brooklyn. ... Howard Moss (January 22, 1922–September 16, 1987) was an American poet, dramatist, and critic who was poetry editor of The New Yorker magazine from 1948 until his death. ... The New Yorkers first cover, which is reprinted most years on the magazines anniversary. ... A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... New York Public Library, central block, built 1897–1911, Carrère and Hastings, architects (June 2003) The New York Public Library (NYPL), one of three public library systems serving New York City, is one of the leading libraries in the United States. ...

TO THE POETRY EDITOR OF THE NEW YORKER

Is Robert Lowell
Better than Noel
Coward,
Howard?

Robert Lowell Robert Lowell (March 1, 1917–September 12, 1977), born Robert Traill Spence Lowell, Jr. ... Sir Noel Peirce Coward (spelling his forename Noël with the diaeresis was an affectation of later life, and Peirce is the correct spelling) (December 16, 1899 – March 26, 1973) was an English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music. ... Sir Noel Peirce Coward (spelling his forename Noël with the diaeresis was an affectation of later life, and Peirce is the correct spelling) (December 16, 1899 – March 26, 1973) was an English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music. ...

External links

• How to write a Clerihew
• How to write a Clerihew poem