What Are Clerihews?

One of the poetic forms I like is the clerihew; I've been fortunate have more than 50 of them published over the years.

A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley when he was a 16-year-old pupil at St Paul's School in London. One day in science class he created the first clerihew, writing about Humphry Davy:

Sir Humphry Davy
was not fond of gravy.
He lived in the odium
of having discovered sodium.

When this clerihew was later published, he replaced "Was not fond of" by "Abominated".

Soon he and fellow classmates - including G. K. Chesterton - were writing more clerihews. Chesterton also supplied drawings for some of Bentley's clerihews. In 1905 Bentley published his first collection of clerihews, Biography for Beginners, including those Chesterton drawings.

So what are the "rules" for a clerihew?

It is biographical and usually whimsical, poking fun at people, but not in a mean-spirited way.
The lines are irregular in length and meter.
The rhyme scheme is AABB.
The first line contains the subject's name, usually at the end of the line.

The form was especially popular in Great Britain. There have even been clerihew contests. In the U.S., the Society of G. K. Chesterton published a magazine, Gilbert, that features clerihews in each issue. The Society also has a clerihew contest at its annual conference.

It is in that magazine that my clerihews have been published.

One of mine honors Bentley:

E. C. Bentley
evidently
knew just what to do
with a clerihew.

I also wrote about Chesterton:

G. K. Chesterton
would sometimes sit in the sun.
His wife appreciated the cool glade
his shadow made.

Pax et bonum