Happy National Clerihew Day
It’s July 10th everyone, and if you aren’t celebrating already, you should be. For those of you who might not know a clerihew from a sonnet, a clerihew is a style of poetry developed by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (July 10, 1875 – March 30, 1956). Clerihews are four-line poems that are for the most part humorous and/or whimsical. Clerihews always begin with a person’s name on the first line. The person might be real, or fictitious. As an example, I will post Bentley’s first clerihew here:
Sir Humphry Davy
Detested gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered Sodium.
To be a true clerihew, a poem must conform to the following rules:
- In must begin with a person’s name
- It must contain rhyming couplets of AA/BB
- The content must describe the person noted in the first line
- It must be funny. Serious clerihews are strictly forbidden
I close with another wonderful clerihew from Bentley:
What I like about Clive
Is that he is no longer alive.
There is a great deal to be said
For being dead.
Enjoy the celebrations my friends.
Ed's end of the planet books 