Clerihew
A Clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical
poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. One
of his best known is this (1905):
Sir Christopher Wren
Went to dine with some men
He said, "If anyone calls,
Say I'm designing Saint Paul's."
A clerihew has the following properties:
It is biographical and usually whimsical, showing
the subject from an unusual point of view; it pokes
fun at mostly famous people.
It has four lines of irregular length and meter (for comic effect).
The rhyme structure is AABB; the subject matter and
wording are often humorously contrived in order
to achieve a rhyme.
The first line contains, and may consist solely of, the
subject's name. Clerihews are not satirical or abusive, but they
target famous individuals and reposition them in
an absurd, anachronistic or commonplace setting,
often giving them an over-simplified and slightly garbled.
The unbalanced and unpolished poetic
meter and line length parody the limerick, and the
clerihew form also parodies the eulogy.