MaryJane Butters was milking her cow
When Megan cried, “Hurry, Mom, follow me NOW.”
Together, they ran to the garden to see …
A beanstalk (heirloom) as big as a tree.
Photo by Tim Sackton via Flickr
That, my friends, was a clerihew.
Cleri-WHO?
No—like this:
KLER-i-hyoo.
More than mere willy-nilly rhyming verse, this type of half-pint poem has rather distinct rules. A true clerihew must contain …
- A bit of wit
- Four lines of uneven length with the rhyming scheme AABB
- The name of the subject within the first line
But, wait—there’s more …
According to Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), originator of the form (at age 16!), a true clerihew will either a) position the subject’s name at the end of the first line, or b) use only the name as the first line. Why? Because the whole point of the poem, he declared, is to rhyme with awkward names.
Maybe I need to take another stab at it? Perhaps something more along these lines:
MaryJane Butters
Was stymied by stutters
When she spied a strange cat
Wearing THIS as a hat.
That clip of the kitty and chicken is too much! I am trying to imagine my Mr.Bump doing that and somehow I keep “seeing” a dead chick!
Thanks for the first, and probably one of the best, laughs of the day!
Laughter is good, especially yours.
I do dearly love to laugh!
Nice job! You are quite the poet, do you know it? And kitty is very patient! Too cute!
Oh that was fun!!! The cat and the hat … 😀