Clerihew

A Clerihew is a short joking pseudobiographical quatrain , a form of poetry invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956). It consists of two pairs of rhymes with uneven length and a more or less free rhythm. The name of the historical person is usually at the end of the first or second line of verse. The Clerihew is more whimsical and quirky than satirical. The lines of verse are oddly irregular (irregular length of the verse, irregular - but not free - rhythm).

Examples

One of the first Clerihews is:

Sir Humphry Davy

Abominated gravy.

He lived in the odium

Of having discovered sodium.

This is hardly translatable. (Meaning, for example: Sir Humphry Davy doesn't like sauce, he is said to have discovered sodium .)

Here is an attempt at a similar biography:

Dieter Bohlen

Dieter Bohlen

loathes coal

After many hours

he invented powder on television.

Bentley's first meeting was published in 1905 as a Beginner's Biography, and more followed in 1929 and 1939.

Shortly after his first collection was published, the name “Clerihew” was adopted for the shape.

Here is another example:

Clerihew von Bentley : The people of Spain think Cervantes Equal to half-a-dozen Dantes ; An opinion resented most bitterly By the people of Italy.		Free re-poetry : According to the Spaniards, Cervantes is like half a dozen Dantes. That would be even nicer, growls the Italians.

literature

• Gerhard Grümmer : Game forms of poetry. VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, Leipzig 1985.