These pages contain three sonnets with
links to worksheet about them. (The last is a link to some basic information
about sonnets.)
Sir Humphrey Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.
A Clerihew by E. Clerihew Bentley, age 16, in science class
Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) wrote detective fiction, and at the age of 16, I imagine a bit bored in school, developed the verse form named after him - the clerihew. G. K. Chesterton, Bentley's friend from childhood, helps popularize the form.
Bentley collected Clerihews into his 1905 Biography For Beginners, (illustrated by Chesterton) in which he explained the concept of the book with a Clerihew variant:
The Art of Biography
Is different from Geography.
Geography is about Maps,
But Biography is about Chaps.
Following this publication, CLERIHEW became a recognized form of verse. Because it uses a proper name at the end of the first line (or sometimes second), it is pseudo-biographical, usually with the emphasis on the "pseudo. " Michael Curl offers this Clerihew on the form's inventor:
E. C. Bentley
Mused while he ought to have studied intently;
It was this muse
That inspired clerihews.
Here are the specifics of the form:
 |
It is a quatrain, rhymed as two couplets (AABB) |
|
The name of the subject usually ends the first or, less often, the second line. It may be the entire first line. |
|
The lines are of uneven length, and of irregular, often prose-like rhythm, although many seem to use anapests |
| from Bentley's first collection of
Clerihews: The people of Spain think Cervantes Equal to half-a-dozen Dantes; An opinion resented most bitterly By the people of Italy.
Was passionately fond of roe. He always liked to chew some When writing anything gruesome.
Said, 'I am going to dine with some men. If anybody calls/ Say I am designing St Paul's.'
Rather against his will, Was persuaded to leave Moses Out of 'The Wars of the Roses'. (by Nicholas Bentley, son of E.C. Bently) |
