CLERICKLE
Created | Updated Aug 5, 2004
The Clerickle is a totally new and hitherto unknown verse form, inspired by entries in H2G2, and a testament to the Guide's inspirational stimulus. It is the bastard offspring of the Clerihew begotten upon the Rimickle. ( qv: Every Posting a Rimickle. The Rimickle is an inverted Limerick, as first perpetrated upon the Guide by Recumbentman early in 2003. Indeed, some of Recumbentman's rimickles may have to be reclassified as clerickles in the light of this dissertation. )
It must therefore contain a name as the chief rhyme-word or phrase of the first line. Thereafter it proceeds as a Rimickle. General note, as in the Rimickle, the crucial construction elements are the rhyme scheme, A,A,B,B,A, and the rhythmic structure of two short lines with two strong beats, followed by two long lines with three strong beats, and a final line with two strong beats. As in a Limerick, the precise number of syllables may vary, but the rhythm is usually triple: _ - -,_ - - etc. The form naturally lends itself to satire and political comment, perhaps, who knows, even wit.
Herewith some Clerickles:
TONY BLAIR
To dislike Tony Blair
Is common, not rare,
On account of his megalomania.
My grief I can hardly contain.He a-
Rouses despair.
SADDAM HUSSEIN
Saddam Hussein
Is incredibly vain,
His picture's all over Iraq.
But faced with a focussed attack
He's vanished again.
CHAIWALLAH
Anthony OBrien
When young gave no sign
Of the character of his maturity,
Which was formed by artistic obscurity
And poetic decline.
It must therefore contain a name as the chief rhyme-word or phrase of the first line. Thereafter it proceeds as a Rimickle. General note, as in the Rimickle, the crucial construction elements are the rhyme scheme, A,A,B,B,A, and the rhythmic structure of two short lines with two strong beats, followed by two long lines with three strong beats, and a final line with two strong beats. As in a Limerick, the precise number of syllables may vary, but the rhythm is usually triple: _ - -,_ - - etc. The form naturally lends itself to satire and political comment, perhaps, who knows, even wit.
Herewith some Clerickles:
TONY BLAIR
To dislike Tony Blair
Is common, not rare,
On account of his megalomania.
My grief I can hardly contain.He a-
Rouses despair.
SADDAM HUSSEIN
Saddam Hussein
Is incredibly vain,
His picture's all over Iraq.
But faced with a focussed attack
He's vanished again.
CHAIWALLAH
Anthony OBrien
When young gave no sign
Of the character of his maturity,
Which was formed by artistic obscurity
And poetic decline.
