April 10, 2003
WORD OF THE DAY:
clerihew (KLER-uh-hyoo) noun (Wordsmith, 4/10/03)A humorous, pseudo-biographical verse of four lines of uneven length, with the rhyming scheme AABB, and the first line containing the name of the subject.[After writer Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), who originated it.]
Here is one of the first clerihews he wrote (apparently while feeling bored in a science class):
Sir Humphrey Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.
Hussein Saddam
coveted a nuclear bomb.
By the UN and EU he was trusted
By the Anglosphere (sans Canada) bunker-busted. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 10, 2003 8:06 AM
Sadam Hussein
Had a tyrannical reign.
His hero was Stalin
But his reign and statue have now fallen.
Saddam Hussein
Was a jabroni with neither heart nor brain
Thanks to Dubya, Iraqis now joyfully prance
Who's next now, hopefully France!
Ali:
Prance has unfortunate connotations here in the States, though it should be rhymed with France.
Arafat Yasser
An enduring monster
Considered by Bush persona non grata
May he receive a bunker-buster in the Muqata
Saddam Hussein's head
In Baghdad was used as a sled
A little boy beat his face with a shoe
What is a deposed dictator to do?
Clerihew
Had a few
Friends at Orrin's
Celebrate Saddam's overdue goin'
Argh! Edit!<\i>
Saddam Hussein,
inflicted much pain,
till he became the dish we want,
at Al-Sa'a Restaurant.
Bruce Cleaver's HTML,
Is clear as a bell,
but his misplaced backslashes,
make of his poetry hashes.
Tommy Franks
Entered the battle with plenty of tanks.
Critics opined that he had to few
All see now what a couple divisions can do.
Backslash
Backlash
Prompts much pain
Get it right - or do it again!
Jacques Chirac
built nukes for Iraq
Thinks Bush should give EU and UN much sway
Let's airlift the Prussians to the Champs-Elysees