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Clerihew (proper)

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A humorous four-line biographical poem with an AABB rhyme scheme, typically whimsical in tone and loosely metered, named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley.

Detailed Definition
A proper clerihew is a whimsical, biographical quatrain with an AABB rhyme scheme, invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley, featuring an eccentric or famous person in the first line and employing irregular meter, absurd humor, and playful anachronism to gently satirize its subject.
Example
Example in poetry:
Clerihew (proper) names a person in line one and rhymes absurdly: “Christopher Columbus / Thought the world was hummus. / When he reached the shore, / He wanted more.”
Additional Notes
Four-line biographical poem: AABB rhyme, first line names subject, humorous tone. Created by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. Related to: light verse, biographical poetry. Practice with historical figures.
Also Known As
biographical quatrain light verse quatrain
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