What is a Clerihew, you ask?
It’s a comical poem made of four lines – two couplets and a specific rhyming scheme, aabb. It was created by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) at the age of 16 and duly named after him. In a Clerihew poem, the first line names a person with the end of the second line rhyming with the person’s name. Most often, these poems make light of or take the serious out of the person being focused on. They’re funny and light-hearted.
If you’re unfamiliar with rhyming scheme and all the differences, here’s an informative video for you to peek at.
How does Clerihew poetry play into middle schoolers reading and writing? Just that – play. And it can actually play into more than the R and W of school, too. Clerihew poems are all about being silly and causing giggles. They’re all about fun and seeing things in a different way.
Everyone is probably familiar with Garfield the cat. He’s lazy, overweight, has an aloof attitude about life and pretty much everything. His constant picking on Odie in the comic strips is presented in a silly or funny way, even though some of Garfield’s actions really aren’t funny.
That’s what a Clerihew poem does. It takes a person (most of the time famous or well-known) and sheds them in silly or humorous shadows, presenting them in an altered way. It makes light of who they are and shows the flip-side of that person in a nice way. By doing this, it forces the writer to see more than is visibly there, plugging into their creative mind and exploring possibilities. What a great exercise to have middle grade readers/writers do. And they can be silly to boot!
Here’s an example:
Garfield the cat
On his rear he sat.
Eating lasagna galore
All about the decor.
Copyright © 2000 James & Marie Summers
Here are a couple videos about the art of Clerihew poems I think you might find helpful. Here & Here. Take a view and then try an exercise with your students or kids. I remember doing exercises like this with my kids to pass the time as we traveled to yet another of their travel hockey or soccer games.
Have you ever written a Clerihew poem? Why not give it a try in the comments and share? We’d love to read!
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Sounds like fun, I always love when they do poetry at my kiddos school. It’s so neat to see what the students come up with.
I didn’t know there was a Clerihew Day. How perfectly fun. Thanks for sharing. I am a big fan of the form.
Birdy birdy in the sky, can you teach me how to fly? Dirty birdy in the sky, why’d you do that in my eye?