[Jerome Betts]

Ditto, Jayne. Spectator stipulates by midday on given date while NS just says 'by 19th January.' I take this to mean 'not later than' but but sent my last minute attempts before 12 just in case.

Osama
Was dispatched in a drama.
Some said he was noble
And others just OBL.

Elizabeth Taylor
Was no modest veiler.
Without benefit of Girton
She acquired Richard Burton.

[Susan d.S.]

Jayne, I also had McCartney one (bet there will be tons!)

McCartney, Paul
Still had the gall
To marry again, to a Garbage Queen.
Let’s hope she’s nicer; Heather was mean.

[Jayne Osborn]

Susan and Jerome,
I've never entered this comp before. I'm not hopeful, but it was fun to have a go.
Good luck with yours!

Bentley himself (google him) used places and also first lines of which the name was only a part. So I think Bazza is right.

John and Bazza,
What I meant earlier related to Chris' entries. These seem far too long to me and don't look like clerihews (sorry, no offence, Chris!).

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.

[Susan d.S.]

Chris,
With some editing, you can make these hew to the Clerihew line. You need two couplets, the first line a proper name (or place or event for this competition). There are no strict rules about line lengths or enjambments, but they are in general on the pithy side.
Best,
Susan

[John Whitworth]

Yes Jayne. I agree with you too. How agreeable I am today in spite of England's Test annihilation. They are indeed far too long.

[FOsen]

I agree with Bazza and John - in all things - which isn't easy.


Poets Oswald and Kinsella
Would prefer salmonella,
To an Eliot from Aurum,
Which they found lacking in decorum.

[Lewis Turco]

Originally Posted by 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

Certainly the "clerihew" is in the fourth edition of THE BOOK OF FORMS. It is listed alphabetically on page 161 where the reader is directed to a description of the form under "satirical poetry" on pages 328-329.

Lew Turco

[Terese Coe]

never mind