Clarihew

 Clerihew (definition from wikipedia): A short comic or nonsensical verse, typically in two rhyming couplets with lines of unequal length and referring a famous person. The rhyme scheme is usually AABB, and the rhymes are often forced (think of an awkward sounding limerick). The line length and meter are irregular (do as you wish with line length; no anapests needed in your meter; easy). Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875--1956) invented the clerihew in school and then popularized it in books. One of his best known is this (1905):

Sir Christopher Wren

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

If anyone calls

Say I am designing St. Paul's."

It was a weakness of Voltaire’s
     To forget to say his prayers,
And one which to his shame
     He never overcame.




Noah’s
Boas
Kept his hares
In Pairs.
                -- Sue Lampi (1994) 






George Orwell
Answered the doorbell.
Big Brother’s Pizza at the door,
Two with pepperoni, $19.84.





 

Did Descartes
Depart
With the thought
"Therefore I'm not"? 






Lovely old Queen Bess
Always in proper dress.
Can't leave her castle
Without so much hassle.









Jackson Pollock
facing possible painter's block
discovered that what matters
to the critics were his splatters.





The ignorant pronounce it Frood,
       To cavil or applaud.
The Well-informed pronounce it Froyd,
       But I pronounce it Fraud.

       -- G. K. Chesterton 


Journal: Light Verse: Please compose at least two clerihews to share with the class on Monday.