History:
A type of epigram invented by Edmund ClerihewHistory: A type of epigram invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), who introduced it in Biography for Beginners (1905) and continued it in More Biography (1929) and Baseless Biography (1939). Structure: • quatrain (four lines) poem of varying length • lines of irregular length • dipodic meter (two feet, meaning two stresses, per line) • rhyming aabb • the first line... More Bentley (1875-1956), who introduced it in Biography for Beginners (1905) and continued it in More Biography (1929) and Baseless Biography (1939).
Structure:
- quatrain (four lines) poem of varying length
- lines of irregular length
- dipodic meter (two feet, meaning two stresses, per line)
- rhyming aabb
- the first line is both the title and the name of a person.
- as an epigram, it is a satirical poem, as all epigrams are satirical, usually mocking.
- more than the technique, it is the purposefully clumsy use of the technique that defines the ClerihewHistory: A type of epigram invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), who introduced it in Biography for Beginners (1905) and continued it in More Biography (1929) and Baseless Biography (1939). Structure: • quatrain (four lines) poem of varying length • lines of irregular length • dipodic meter (two feet, meaning two stresses, per line) • rhyming aabb • the first line... More. The wording is usually humorously mangled to achieve a rhyme, the meter is purposefully clumsy, and the rhyme is awkward.
Sources:
Turco, Lewis. The Book of Forms. p. 328
https://www.britannica.com/art/clerihew