Clerihew

A Clerihew is a short jocular pseudobiographischer quatrain, a poem, by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) was invented. It consists of two rhyming couplets with non-uniform length and more or less free rhythm. The name of the historical figure stands usually at the end of the first or the second line of verse. The Clerihew is rather quaint and quirky as satirical. The verses are comically irregular (irregular Verslänge, irregular - but not free - rhythm).

Examples

One of the first Clerihews is:

This is hardly translatable. (Meaning about Sir Humphry Davy may no sauce (or no bribes ), one repeats after him, he would have discovered sodium. )

Here's an attempt at a similar biography:

Bentley's first verse collection was published in 1905 as " Biography for Beginners" and it was followed by more in 1929 and 1939.

Shortly after the publication of his first collection, the name " Clerihew " was adopted for the form.

Here is another example: