Clerihews at the New Statesman
 

No 4211 Set by Brendan O’Byrne: To mark the death of Christopher Logue at 85 – the poet who launched Clerihew Corner in Private Eye – could we have some clerihews on events or persons who made the headlines in 2011. Max ten goes by 19 January comp@newstatesman.co.uk

Chris, you are a great man. You are hereby elected Staggers watcher for 2012. Defending myself, may I just say that the ONLY newsagent stocking the Staggers round here is on the university campus and parking there can be tricky. Canterbury is a rather Tory place. Well, it would be, wouldn't it? Sometimes one might think that the ONLY socialist is the Arch himself. And he doesn't liive here, he lives in London. There are socialist STUDENTS of course but we don't count them.

GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry is prone to gaffs;
this Good Ole Boy provides the comics with plenty laughs;
Rick wanted to take the White House, one, two, three,
but 'tis better Ricky boy return to Texas, let's all agree.

Herman Cain for Prez'dent? Hey, now, that's profane!
How he scratched his chin: "What's that lady's name again?!!"
No, Herman won't make his home at Sixteen Hundred.
Cain proved himself not able. . . in short, he blundered.

Wills and Kate and Harry and Pippa. . .
each helps the Royals appear hipper,
buoys the ancient British institution
at a time that we seek solutions.

Hi Chris,
Were you thinking of submitting these? Only, they're not clerihews, strictly speaking.

Lewis Turco's 'The Book of Forms' (Third Edition)* says: The clerihew, a particular type of epigram, was invented by E. Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956). It is a quatrain in dipodic meters rhyming aabb, the first line of which is both the title and the name of a person:

SIGMUND FREUD
Became annoyed
When his ego
Sailed to Montego.

SIGMUND FREUD
Became more annoyed
When his id
Flew to Madrid. (There are two more stanzas...)

KARL JUNG
Found himself among
Archetypes
Of various stripes.

*Just received, this afternoon, Turco's new 'Revised and Expanded Edition'; there's no specific mention of clerihews in it, though, so I'll be hanging onto my old copy, which I was going to give away!

Jayne

Well, they can also be about places and things. I found a little volume called Other People's Clerihews, selected by Gavin Ewart, Oxford Press, 1983[!], which contains, in among the Ewart, Auden, Cope, Clifton Fadiman, and Lionel Trilling, the following:

Jeremy Bentham,
When they played the National Anthem,
Sat on,
With his hat on.
XXXXXXXXXXJohn Whitworth

The Sun
Has a simple idea of fun,
It's
Tits.
XXXXXXXXXXBasil Ransome-Davies

On top of Popocatepetl
Foreigners are in fine fetl;
They can either sit and titl-tatl
Or look across at Itaccihuatl.
XXXXXXXXXXBill Greenwell

Guilty as charged, your honour. My favourite is by Fiona Pitt-Kethley, who is now in Italy, but has won many a speccie in her time. I quote from memory.

Emily Bronte
Took some crayons by Conte
And wrote Fuck, Shit and Balls
All over the Rectory walls.

Hi Jayne

Maybe that was the original conception that the first line of the clerihew should be taken up entirely with the name of the subject of the poem, although there appear to be a number of examples since written that don't follow that rule, as seen here at "What Is a Clerihew?" on verse.org.uk, so I think some leeway is allowable, as long as the subject of the clerihew is stated in the first of the four lines of the poem and that it rhymes aabb as required.

Best regards

Chris

ahem
 

It's a great clerihew, John, but Fiona lives in Cartagena, Spain.