Clerihew

POETIC FORMS

Named after its inventor E. Clerihew Bentley who died in 1956, a clerihew is a four line comic verse with two rhyming pairs of lines with the rhyme sceme AABB.  This forced rhyme scheme often leads to forced or slightly nonsensical rhymes. The first line of the poem is the name of the person about whom the rhyme verse is written;

John Hegley's Poem Zoe is a good example

Zoe Zoe
You had to goe
I felt so sad, 
I wrote this poe.

 

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