Clerihews
I
Edmund Clerihew Bentley
lampooned illuminati intently:
his quatrains on names, with a closing flick,
liberated burlesque from limerick.
II
Ezra Loomis Pound
wrote cantos polyglot and profound:
cognoscenti find them tinglish,
even some collaged in English.
poem by William F Dougherty
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Related quotes
Muhammad Ali
A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. The lines are comically irregular in length, and the rhymes, often contrived, are structured AABB.
Muhammad Ali
who stung like a mad bee
And floated like a butterfly;
then punched you in the eye.
poem by Albert Ahearn
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Martin Luther King (Clerihew verse-form)
Martin Luther King was not a king.
He did not have horses, a crown, or anything.
He preached a lot and had a dream
Of everybody eating ice cream.
The following poem is in the Clerihew verse-form, which was invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley, author of Trent’s Last Case, the perfect murder mystery. It consists of two rhymed couplets. The first couplet usually (can also be the second couplet) includes the name of a famous person. The other lines contain a characteristic, real or fictional, of the person.
poem by Ben Gieske
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The art of biography is different from geography. Geography is about maps, but biography is about chaps.
quote by Edmund Clerihew Bentley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Said a poet composing a limerick
'I'll share an ice cream with my love and give him a lick'
She wrote down her rhyme
And he said 'about time,
And I'd appreciate it if we could take in a flick.'
quote by by Janice Windle
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Close To Greatness
at one stage in my life
I met a man who claimed to have
visited Pound at St. Elizabeths.
then I met a woman who not only
claimed to have visited
E.P.
but also to have made love
to him—she even showed
me
certain sections in the
Cantos
where Ezra was supposed to have
mentioned
her.
so there was this man and
this woman
and the woman told me
that Pound had never
mentioned a visit from this
man
and the man claimed that the
lady had had nothing to do
with the
master
that she was a
charlatan
and since I wasn't a
Poundian scholar
I didn't know who to
believe
but one thing I do
know: when a man is
living
many claim relationships
that are hardly
so
and after he dies, well,
then it's everybody's
party.
my guess is that Pound
knew neither the lady or the
gentleman
or if he knew
one
or if he knew
both
it was a shameful waste of
madhouse
time.
poem by Charles Bukowski
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Any pioneer of a revolution in poetry - and Mr. Pound is more responsible for the XXth Century revolution in poetry than is any other individual - is sure to attack some venerated names.
T.S. Eliot in Introduction to «Literary Essays of Ezra Pound» (1954)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Edmund Clerihew Bently (clerihew)
Edmund Clerihew Bently
is suddenly from his writing free,
hears someone on the radio sing,
decides a whimsical poem is just the thing.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Our Contemporaries
When the Taihaitian princess
Heard that he had decided,
She rushed out into the sunlight and swarmed up a
cocoanut palm tree,
But he returned to this island
And wrote ninety Petrarchan sonnets.
poem by Ezra Pound
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People find ideas a bore because they do not distinguish between live ones and stuffed ones on a shelf.
quote by Ezra Pound
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Coda
O My songs,
Why do you look so eagerly and so curiously into
people's faces,
Will you find your lost dead among them?
poem by Ezra Pound
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On Being Told That There Is No Rhyme For The Word “Limerick”
After I heard Harry’s limerick,
I found that my mind set to simmer. “Rick, ”
I said to myself,
“One might write it itself, ”
But I answered, “You’re chances are slimmer, Rick! ”
So I can’t find a good rhyme for Limerick.
Told myself, “ You are just a beginner, Rick
And though there’s no reason
You can’t write something decent,
I fancy your chances get grimmer, Rick! ”
He said that it might rhyme with turmeric
But I thought, “You’re not that fast a learner, Rick:
Ditch your thoughts wasting time
Finding suitable rhyme;
Let your plans, man, stand on the back burner, Rick.”
But the cogwheels had started to turn a bit
As I guessed I had started to learn a bit
And I might find a line
That rhymes Limerick fine
And might win me a prize, so I earn a bit.
But I thought, “Though there was just a glimmer, Rick.
You will think till you’re needing a zimmer, Rick,
Since the muse isn’t kind,
I am sure you’ll will find
Not a word that will rhyme fine with Limerick.”
poem by C. Richard Miles
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Ezra Pound's Canto and The Girls's Behind.
It was the year
Elvis died
and you were working
in a warehouse
packing cakes
into pallets
reading Ezra Pound's
Cantos in lunch breaks
or studying
that book
on Spinoza
while the other guys
talked of ballgames
or sex
or who did what
to whom
in the daily news
and a young girl
from the upstairs office
came down
to the canteen
to use the drinks
vending machine
and as she turned to face
the machine
to make her choice
she wiggled her neat behind
and turned
and smiled at you
and Don said to you
I think she fancies you
I'm old enough
to be her father
you said
maybe she's looking
for a father figure
Kevin said
the girl pressed a button
and a disposable cup
fell into the slot
and hot coffee shot down
in a straight line
I'm happily married
you said keeping
a finger on your place
in Ezra's 20th Canto
she doesn't want
to marry you
Don said
she wants something
more basic
Kevin laughed
and the girl pushed
another button
and another cup fell
and cappuccino shot
into the cup
and you carried
an image
of the girl's neat butt
into your mind
where it mixed
with the Canto
and words
and images
Ezra was trying
to convey
and Don said to the girl
how far
do your legs go up?
and girl said
that's for me to know
and for you to guess
and she blushed
and walked off
with her wiggling behind
carrying the two coffees
in her small hands
and the guys followed her
with their lustful eyes
and you moved your finger
along the page
feeling like an old guy
weighed down with age.
poem by Terry Collett
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Sub Mare
It is, and is not, I am sane enough,
Since you have come this place has hovered round me,
This fabrication built of autumn roses,
Then there's a goldish colour, different.
And one gropes in these things as delicate
Algæ reach up and out, beneath
Pale slow green surgings of the underwave,
'Mid these things older than the names they have,
These things that are familiears of the god.
poem by Ezra Pound
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This Sad Burlesque
I write in hopes that by the time you get this letter
We may live to see a change for the better
Or are we so devoted to these wretched selfish motives
When the cold facts and figures all add up
They cannot contradict this sad burlesque
This sad burlesque
With miserable failures making entertainment of our fate
Laughter cannot dignify of elevate
This sad burlesque
Now can they recall being young and idealistic
Before wading knee-deep in hogwash and arithmetic
The pitying smirk
The argument runs like clockwork
Will run down eventually and splutter to a stop
P.s. well by now you know the worst of it
And weve heard all the alibis that theyve rehearsed
The smug predictions
If its not a contradiction
Keep faith in human nature
And have mercy on the creatures in this sad burlesque
song performed by by Elvis Costello
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Either move or be moved.
quote by Ezra Pound
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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There is no reason why the same man should like the same book at 18 and at 48.
quote by Ezra Pound
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It Is My Pleasure
It is my pleasure
It is like making love to you
The better the poem
The hotter I get
And my words
Are all I have to make
You feel my passion
Until that day
I will ravage your body
With my vowels
And my pronouns will
Lick you insane
And my nouns will I
Penetrate you with and
Adjectives will pound
And pound and pound
Viciously until you come
And my subjectives
Will drain all
My pretense into you
Hot Hot Words
And all english grammar too
poem by Midnights Voice
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Godzilla Flick
This is an old Godzilla flick,
This is an old Godzilla flick.
People that you love,
Are never going to say hello again.
And it's only in the movies.
This is an old Godzilla flick.
This is an old Clint Eastwood flick.
People that you love,
Shouldn't take the life out of themselves.
And it's only in the movies.
This is an old Godzilla flick.
This is an old Godzilla flick.
This is an old Godzilla flick.
And no this time I think it's really it.
And it's only in the movies.
song performed by by Flaming Lips
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To Êáëüí (Greek title)
Even in my dreams you have denied yourself to me
And sent me only your handmaids.
poem by Ezra Pound
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No verse is libre for the man who wants to do a good job.
quote by Ezra Pound
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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