Poetry Challenge 7: Post Your Clerihews!
I need another week!
But challenges are delicate things, and not to be trifled with.
What part was hard for you? For me, the anachronisms didn’t really happen. Although I did manage to put my subjects into situations in which we don’t ordinarily think of them.
Also, did you find yourself wanting to write about people you like or people you don’t like? I ended up writing about people I mostly like, and I think this may have been a rookie mistake. There’s not much bite in that. (And I’m thinking I may write another or two before the day is done. Can you believe, I’m having a hard time thinking of someone I dislike, besides popular performers? I know there must be someone… I guess this reflects my reading habits: the down-side of my trail-of-delight theory.)
Josh’s Marx poem, on the other hand, certainly doesn’t indicate any affection on his part for the politically autistic Karl, and I did find it quite funny. He reads people he hates so he can critique them intelligently.
Since Josh posted his clerihew ahead of time, I’ll start things off by re-posting for him in the comments below, and then adding mine. Let’s post one clerihew per comment.
Enjoy!
Slow Literature 
Evolution, Reversal of.
Imitation, esp. dogs.
Karl Marx
Liked to bark.
All the neighbors closed their casements
When he lived in his parents’ basement.
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I like this one. Appropriately trivializing for the form, but not ill humored.
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Trivializing… good word. Ill-humored also an excellent word.
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Fashion, conventions of, deliberate flouting by
Pope Francis
never wears pantses.
From the rear,
the loss is not severe.
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Throat muscles, occasional relaxation of
Robert Frost
was rarely sauced,
but when he was
his nose would buzz.
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Perception, gustatory, rare and heroic
Professor Tolkien
liked the yolk in,
the chalaza out,
and the pepper about.
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This one is my favorite. The title makes it funnier, especially now knowing what a chalaza is having just googled it. 🙂
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Musical preference, Puritan; inability to appreciate
Peace, disturbing the, contumelious practice of
Nathaniel Hawthorne
invented the Scoff-horn.
It is played with gyrations
that dismay most relations.
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A curlihew or two
Mary’s little lamb
‘s not white, not black, but crammed
With everything
That’s God. A wholly catholic king.
*
Will Mr. Obama
Remain aloof despite the drama
When he to Hillary
Gives keys to the media pillory.
I broke the rules
But hey they’re just tools.
Trying again,
This time with a regular pen.
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Obama-drama and Hillary-pillory are very satisfying rhymes!
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Jane Austen
went to Boston.
I can’t do the rest:
failed clerihew test.
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Hah oh dear. Maybe this was more to my taste than anyone else’s. Still. Clever.
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Oh, I think they are fun. I was just distracted during this challenge and hadn’t put in any effort. In fact, I was going to sit this one out, but then I realized they were less intimidating than I thought so decided to post and be silly off the cuff. (Btw, I would like to “like” your offerings (and Josh’s and Albert’s), but for some reason that option doesn’t work for me, perhaps because I am posting from a fb account rather than wordpress.)
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Weird. Let me check on that. I think I noticed a similar problem when reading comments within the post.
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Are the like buttons back on?
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I don’t think so.
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Sarah Palin
went a wailin’
“Stump for Trump!” the day
she out ranked Tina Fey.
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I was lacking inspiration for a clerihew but then reading one of Albert’s inspired me to go political. 🙂 Palin’s endorsement speech has had me cackling, which I have to think that was her intent. I might rewatch it and concoct a clerihew series in commemoration.
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Not a bad name-rhyme. And with the internal rhyme you could even have stopped at ‘Trump.’
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Ah, but that would be leaving out the point that the real Sarah was funnier than the parody. However, I think the last line needs a livelier verb. What do you think of “out crazied”? Is slang frowned on in our challenges?
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What about “upstaged”? Or” outplayed”? Or–if curlihews are still curlihew with variable syllable count–the line could read, “She played the role of Tina Fey.” (Sorry, Leah, got carried away. It’s just that there’s less pressure writing other persons’ poems; much more fun than struggling with my own!)
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Oh, I like “She played the role of Tina Fey”! It has more of the sly wit I gather is the goal of a curlihew/clerihew. Alana, I vote we (you) change it and consider this one a collaborative effort of the class.
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Well, of course you can post a revision as always.
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Generally the clerihew should sound literate. I think placing a slang-word (like “sauced” for “intoxicated”) in these well-appointed little word houses is acceptable, provided they don’t take the place over. The butler should retain a firm hand upon the back of the slang-word’s collar.
No – in the clerihew, making a point is a far deadlier sin than letting in a slang word or two.
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I forgot about titles. Also forgot how hard it is to rhyme smoothly and sensible, and still keep a rhythm going. It’s like turning screws to write curlihews. More fun to read them, especially above. I “like” all.
STIMULATION OR PRESERVATION AT THE ALTAR RAIL
While Francis the pope
Provides a coffee-jolt of hope
church doctors strive
To keep its malfunctioning heart alive.
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The rhyme and rhythm need not be perfect so that’s good news.
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Sarah Palin,
your ship went sailin’
in 2008?
Recalibrate!
The Election Was Getting Boring, but
Now there’s Sarah Palin,
arms a flailin’
spinnin’ heads and muddlin’ zingers
for “bitter clingin’ proud clingers!”
*
Sarah Palin,
glory trailin’,
are you the setting light
on the blank stage of the right?
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My dear, I don’t see how Sarah Palin can have done anything worse than this poem.
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Lol! Perhaps a rewrite or three is in order. . .
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I’m in the middle of writing a little piece addressing your comment about lacking inspiration. It’s helpful to me to explore the idea of inspiration and how it relates to different kinds of poetry and whether we need it for clerihews or not. 🙂
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OK, I published it. Hope it helps.
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Upon a re-read, I have to say this horrible poem of mine does make me giggle. I don’t know, I might just be in a weird mood. But I’m sorry if I’m messing up the dignity of your challenge thread. (Not sarcastic, I know that it is often light hearted here, but with the implicit acceptance that we are taking the work of poetry seriously.) Would you like to delete?
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Lol, no not at all. If you hated it, I would definitely take it down but if you like it, then I would rather preserve the integrity of the interaction than the dignity of the thread. 🙂 Let’s be us.
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Works for me! It was carelessly written and posted, which is something I probably wouldn’t do again (see aforementioned concern for Dignity of Thread) but I don’t actually hate it. We can leave it as a testament to my humility. 😉
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Ah, you’re a treasure.
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Sigmund Freud
was sore annoyed
to find skill with a pun
elusive, hard won.
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Oh boy. Heh. That’s just rich.
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You might call it “Grapes, sour.”
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like
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Continence-lacking
Ghenghis Khan
Was not a swan
So his DNA is spread quite wide
A fact of which he’d have great pride
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Yes, a very apt rhyme, and ingenious way of using it!
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I think one has to be careful with this form that the sarcasm does not become too strong. Am I wrong?
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No, I don’t think you’re wrong. I think that’s an important point. I found the following quote a few months ago in Google Books somewhere, and can’t find it again… but here it is now in an article:
“The classical clerihew,” Ewart writes, “is free from malice. . . . The clerihew could easily be used for satire, and even satire of great bitterness, but as far as I know it never has been.” He describes the tone of the clerihew as “both civilized and dotty”, a mini-cocktail.”
https://briefpoems.wordpress.com/tag/clerihew/
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