Clerihew Clerihew A clerihew () is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. The first line is the name of the poem's subject, usually a famous person put in an absurd light, or revealing something unknown or spurious about them. The rhyme scheme is AABB, and the rhymes are often forced. The line length and metre are irregular. Bentley invented the clerihew in school and then popularized it in books. One of his best known is this (1905): A clerihew has the following properties: Clerihews are not satirical or abusive, but they target famous individuals and reposition them
Edmund Clerihew Bentley He died in 1956 in London at the age of 80. His son Nicolas Bentley was a famous illustrator. Phonographic recordings of his work "Recordings for the Blind" are heard in the film "Places in the Heart", by the character Mr. Will. G. K. Chesterton dedicated his popular detective novel on anarchist terrorism, "The Man Who Was Thursday", to Edmund Clerihew Bentley, a school friend. While he is best known for his crime fiction and clerihews, Bentley also wrote at least one science fiction short story. This is the recently re-discovered "Flying Visit", published in the [London] "Evening Standard" on