[Jayne Osborn]

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

[FOsen]

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

[John Whitworth]

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.

[basil ransome-davies]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

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.

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

[Jayne Osborn]

Hi Chris (G),

Hmmm... I'd be inclined to stick to the more precise, original form, but that's just me.
It will be interesting to see whether the NS is more relaxed about it than I am!

Good luck with your entries, anyway; ten each!

[Roger Slater]

Clearly they are more relaxed, Jayne, since they say "events or persons" and not just persons.

[Jayne Osborn]

Good point, Bob, though of course it's still possible that they'd like the event to form the first line.

I think I'm just inured to the fact that the first line contains only the subject matter of the clerihew.

Bazza, John, Frank, anyone... your thoughts on this?

Jayne

[John Whitworth]

Spain it is, Bazza.

[basil ransome-davies]

Call me wanton, but I favour quality of wit & invention over prescriptive formats.

[Jayne Osborn]

Yes, but 'prescriptive formats' make things what they are, don't they, Bazza?

When does a clerihew cease to be a clerihew and become just a four line poem about someone (or something, as per this challenge)?

Wit and invention will win over another clerihew that hasn't got it, but being a clerihew is still the basic requirement.

Jayne