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Clerihewic

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

Describing poetry composed in the manner of a clerihew: a light-hearted, biographical quatrain with an AABB rhyme and irregular meter.

Detailed Definition
Clerihewic refers to the stylistic qualities or conventions of the clerihew: irreverent tone, biographical focus, comic incongruity, and loose meter within a strict AABB quatrain structure; it prioritizes wit and surprise over formal elegance or lyrical depth.
Example
Example in poetry:
Clerihewic: “Sir Walter Raleigh / Was rarely / At a loss for words / But once drowned in sauce” (original); Edmund Clerihew Bentley’s original: “Sir Humphry Davy / Abominated gravy”; Modern twist: “Elon Musk / In a tusk / Of self-made myth / Lost his pith”
Additional Notes
In the style of or pertaining to a clerihew. Describes humorous biographical verse with specific form. See: clerihew for full definition. Useful for comic biographical sketches.
Also Known As
Biographical quatrain epigrammatic verse comic biography
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