Wednesday Medley

Terri's questions this week:

Everything below this line is from the National Day Calendar.

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NATIONAL CLERIHEW DAY – July 10

NATIONAL CLERIHEW DAY

July 10th of each year celebrates National Clerihew Day in the United States.  Edmund Clerihew Bentley created the whimsical, four-line biographical poem.

An English novelist and humorist, Edmund Clerihew Bentley (July 10, 1875 – March 30, 1956), was a 16-year-old student when he thought up the lines for his first ever clerihew.

Sir Humphry Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium

Of having discovered sodium

As with most poetry, the Clerihew is defined by a set of rules. It must contain four lines, rhyming couplets of AA/BB, a person’s name in the first line, say something about that person and it should be humorous. It is meant to be a funny poem, of course.

The genre of poetry wasn’t limited to Bentley. Other poets wrote and published in form as well, and still do.

• A Cluster of Clerihews by Gavin Ewart
• Excuse My Clerihews by William Hazell
• The Lost Clerihews of Paul Ingram by Paul Ingram (Though they don’t really seem lost, I guess they once were.)

Like limericks, poets poke fun at people real and imagined. As with any humor, it’s meant to draw a chuckle from the reader as well as the subject of the poem. If you can’t laugh at yourself and you’re the subject of a clerihew, it’s probably better not to read it. If you’re writing a clerihew about someone who can’t take a joke, maybe don’t write the clerihew. Or, write it about not being able to take a joke.

Nelly Belly ha ha
Danced to Lady GaGa.
Fell on her bum.

Cried in her rum.

HOW TO OBSERVE NATIONAL CLERIHEW DAY

On National Clerihew Day, try writing a clerihew or two of your own! Post on social media using #NationalClerihewDay.

HISTORY OF NATIONAL CLERIHEW DAY

The day is observed annually on the anniversary of Edmund Clerihew Bentley’s birth, July 10th.

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Everything above this line is from the National Day Calendar.

Terri freely admits that she had no idea what Clerihew Day was about until she read about it above.  Sounds like a fun exercise!!  It may take a while so one poem is the only real task today!!  If you aren't up for creating, then visit HERE and pick your favorite to share!   Let's go!

1.  Try your hand at one of these Clerihew poems, or two or three!  

First, mine:

Performer Billy Joel

His music fills my soul.

All his fans hearken

When he plays at the Garden.

Next, one I liked:  

The enemy of Harry Potter

Was a scheming plotter.

I can't tell you what he's called; I'd be ashamed

To name "he who must not be named".

2.  Tell us something about your week so far.

Working in Manhattan may be many things, but "boring" is not one of them.  Yesterday HBO was shooting one of its productions outside 70 Pine Street, about two blocks from my office.  Today, of course, is the ticker tape parade for the women's soccer team.  And at the end of the week we will experience another "Manhattanhenge", where the setting sun will be aligned with the east-west streets of midtown.