Back ক্লেরিহিউ Bengali/Bangla Clerihew Catalan Clerihew German クレリヒュー Japanese ಕ್ಲೇರಿಹ್ಯೂ Kannada Clerihew Dutch Clerihew Polish Клерихью Russian 克萊里休詩 Chinese
A clerihew (/ˈklɛrɪhjuː/) is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem of a type invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. The first line is the name of the poem's subject, usually a famous person, and the remainder puts the subject in an absurd light or reveals something unknown or spurious about the subject. The rhyme scheme is AABB, and the rhymes are often forced. The line length and metre are irregular. Bentley 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."[1]
- ^ Bentley, E. Clerihew (1905). Biography for Beginners. ISBN 978-1-4437-5315-9.