Alexander Pope

A clerihew

Oh, witty Alexander Pope–

As if you hunted with a scope,

You pierced your targets to the heart

With ev’ry pointed verbal dart.

 

“Elizabeth II”–a 10th Clerihew by Paul Burgess

“Elizabeth II”

British Bessie number two–

What does her Royal Highness do?

Despite the glory that she hogs,

She mostly plays with Corgi dogs.

“Britney Spears”–a Clerihew by Paul Burgess

As William Baer notes, a clerihew “consists of two couplets (aabb) where the first line of the poem is generally the name of a famous person; the second line is some kind of outrageous predicate; and the final two lines often call up some historical fact or fantasy about the subject” (Writing Metrical Poetry 186).

Here is a sample from Edward Clerihew Bentley, the form’s inventor: “George the Third/Ought never to have occurred./One can only wonder/At so grotesque a blunder.”

The following clerihew is the first one I have attempted to write:

To hear the voice of Britney Spears

Brought to life my darkest fears

Because her rise I knew would bring

A wave of stars who couldn’t sing.

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