Selected Clerihews

By Dennis Callegari

This is a new collection of clerihews written by Dennis Callegari.

A clerihew is a humorous biographical (or pseudo-biographical) four-line verse about a contemporary or historical person, where the rhyming scheme is AABB. In clerihews, most lines are of unequal length and the name of the person mentioned must form part of the first rhyme. The original clerihews were the invention of the author and journalist Edmund Clerihew Bentley, but this verse form also has been employed by writers such as G.K. Chesterton, W.H. Auden, Dorothy Parker, and many others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dennis Callegari
• Release date: Jan 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463226865

Dennis Callegari

Dennis Callegari has been a science writer and technical writer since 1988. He is the author of Cook’s Cannon and Anchor (Kangaroo Press, 1994), and is a devotee of clerihews and historical mysteries.

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About Clerihews

A clerihew is a humorous biographical (or pseudo-biographical) four-line verse about a contemporary or historical person, where the rhyming scheme is AABB. In clerihews, most lines are of unequal length and the name of the person mentioned must form part of the first rhyme.

The original clerihews were the invention of the author and journalist Edmund Clerihew Bentley, but this verse form also has been employed by writers such as G.K. Chesterton, W.H. Auden, Dorothy Parker, and many others.

Some of my own clerihews below have appeared previously in magazines such as Gilbert!, Bikwil and Light., or on my own blog. Others are being published here for the first time.

G.K. CHESTERTON

G.K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw were great friends, but they were in many ways physical, intellectual and spiritual opposites. Chesterton greatly enjoyed food