XPost: alt.usage.english
On 7/10/2024 2:57 AM, Ross Clark wrote:
Birthday of Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), journalist, writer of detective novels, and humorous poet.
Created (aged 16) the poetic form named after him.
Whimsical four-line verse.
First line is name of someone well known.
Second line makes a general observation about them.
Third and fourth lines are comical or nonsensical.
Line lengths are irregular.
Rhyme scheme: AABB
A couple of ECB's originals:
Lewis Carroll
Bought sumptuous apparel
And built an enormous palace
Out of the profits of _Alice_.
Sir Christopher Wren
Said, "I am going to dine with some men.
If anyone calls
Say I am designing St Paul's."
More here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerihew
i'm sure that... Lots of ppl who consider themselves
cultured and well-read
have never heard of a "Clerihew poem" or [echo verse]
i once met a young man who was in his 2nd(?) year in his
Ph.D. studies of English Lit. at an American university...
(he spoke pretty good English)
i said something about a limerick and he'd never heard of it.
A Ph.D. student of English Lit
Betrays an Aptitude of being Unfit.
It's fine to study Shelly, Keats, and T.Eliot
But the toilet fun of "Nantucket" -- Could tell he it?
______________________________
The most famous "Nantucket" poem isn't actually a poem but a limerick, a humorous five-line verse form. Here's the classic (and slightly risqué) version:
There once was a man from Nantucket,
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter named Nan,
Ran away with a man,
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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