clerihew

American  

[kler-uh-hyoo] / ˈklɛr əˌhyu /

noun

Prosody.

1. a light verse form, usually consisting of two couplets, with lines of uneven length and irregular meter, the first line usually containing the name of a well-known person.

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clerihew British  

/ ˈklɛrɪˌhjuː /

noun

1. a form of comic or satiric verse, consisting of two couplets of metrically irregular lines, containing the name of a well-known person

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Etymology

Origin of clerihew

1925–30; named after E. Clerihew Bentley (1875–1956), English writer, its inventor

Explanation

A clerihew is a short poetic form about a famous person. Clerihews rhyme and consist of four lines. Clerihew was the middle name of the man who invented the form. Like the haiku, the clerihew is a very short type of poetry with a specific form. A clerihew must have four lines and consist of rhyming couplets. A clerihew should also be about a famous person. If this all sounds serious, it isn't. Like a limerick, a clerihew is usually humorous (though not necessarily dirty, as limericks tend to be). People write clerihews for fun and to amuse.

Example Sentences

Edmund Clerihew Bentley Created a form of verse that has never mocked gently.

From Washington Post • Aug. 13, 2015

As the insouciant old Clerihew goes: Sir Christopher WrenSaid, I am going to dine with some men.If anyone callsSay I am designing St Paul's.

From The Guardian • Mar. 1, 2011

For all the journals' odd historical interest, Compiler Beard seems to have performed his scholastic labors in defiance of the Clerihew: Once it was a social blooper Not to have read some Fenimore Cooper.

From Time Magazine Archive

Drums, Pa. -�A "Clerihew" is a verse of four lines of varying length in which the first two and last two lines rhyme.

From Time Magazine Archive

"There's not enough to go round, nowadays," grunted Brother Clerihew, who had been a butler, and knew.

From Brother Copas by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir