Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Creeping Man

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Welcome once again to my poetry page!

I hope each week you will read Dr. Watson’s delightful narrative and then be inspired to write a poem related to it in some way. All forms of poetry are permitted, and further down the page there is a selection you might like to consider using over the coming weeks.

Inspired by the unfortunate Professor Presbury’s desire to recapture the past, I decided to investigate a poetry form used by this community before I arrived. And so this week my featured form is the clerihew.

Wikipedia gives this definition:

A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. The first line is the name of the poem's subject, usually a famous person put in an absurd light. The rhyme scheme is AABB, and the rhymes are often forced. The line length and metre are irregular.

A clerihew has the following properties:

It is biographical and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; it mostly pokes fun at famous people;

It has four lines of irregular length and metre (for comic effect);

The rhyme structure is AABB; the subject matter and wording are often humorously contrived in order to achieve a rhyme, including the use of phrases in Latin, French and other non-English languages;

The first line contains, and may consist solely of, the subject's name. Bentley said that a true clerihew has to have the name "at the end of the first line", as the whole point was the skill in rhyming awkward names.


I realise many of you will already be greatly skilled at this form and so, as an extra challenge, why not try including some of your own portmanteau words—like Dr. Watson and his ‘Camford’?



Here is my example poem dedicated to someone, who though not famous, is quite well-known around Baker Street:


The excellent Mrs. Turner:
When single a wage earner.
But my girls give suitors something to burn over.
When it comes to cooks, I get quite a turnover.



As always, this is simply something to consider for the future. Any form of poetry is welcome this week—and every week! Here are a few suggestions for you:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, beeswing, blackout poetry, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, epigram, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, found poetry, ghazal, haiku, Italian sonnet, kennings poem, lanturne, limerick, lyric poetry, mathnawī, palindrome poetry, pantoum, poem cycle, quintilla, renga, riddle, rime couée, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, sonnet, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, triolet, tyburn, villanelle


Please leave all your poems inspired by The Creeping Man in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!


Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson

Comments

Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Old Presbury’s mad as a hare,
Mule-stubborn, and cross as a bear.
His search for lost youth
Only points to the truth:
Love makes monkeys of men, I declare.

Re: Limerick

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Funny and poignant ^^ Great last line - how very true.

Poor Presbury - I do sympathise with the poor old sod. There's that quote, isn't there? Something like: if a middle-aged man is chasing after a young woman, it's not her youth he's after, it's his.

Re: Limerick

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Sings: "The guy's only doing it for some doll"

RE: Limerick

[debriswoman]

Nicely done
Excellent last line:-)

Re: Limerick

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Amen.

Re: Limerick

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

What a good idea - and it makes a very good limerick. Thank you.

A clerihew

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Mr. Trevor Bennett
We all cling to the tenet
That calling you ‘Trev’ would be on the right track
Gordon Bennett! Why on earth are you called ‘Jack’?

Re: A clerihew

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Who wants to be called Trevor?

RE: A clerihew

[debriswoman]

Perhaps ACD was simply checking if readers were paying attention.

Re: A clerihew

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Oh, the names! *smacks head*

Re: A clerihew

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

I'm just relieved she didn't call him "Violet."

Re: Clerihew: Roy

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Brilliant last line!

Re: Clerihew: Roy

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

You are shining today! Very well done. And I'm glad that Roy finally got some attention. After all, he's the whole point, yes?

Re: Clerihew: Roy

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Seconding the applause for that last line! (Before I joined Sherlock60 I used to get the stories mixed up, and for some reason I always thought the "did nothing in the night-time" bit came from CREE ^^)

Re: Clerihew: Roy

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

*lol* and thank you!

In this canon, it seems dogs can do nothing right.

Re: Clerihew: Roy

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Roy - the dog that did SOMEthing. Good boy.

Re: Written earlier...a pantoum

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Lovely description of the two of them, beautifully written.

Re: Written earlier...a pantoum

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Nice use of whetstone from the beginning of the story. Really lovely. It's always convenient, of course.

Re: Written earlier...a pantoum

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I love the way you take us through Watson's thought processes - in the first verse he seems almost resentful that Holmes expects him to drop everything and go. And then Watson seems unsure that Holmes even needs him. But as we go on, we see that of course Holmes needs Watson, and Watson will always gladly help Holmes. The slight twist you give to the last line, from what it was at the beginning, is genuinely so touching.

Re: Written earlier...a pantoum

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Brilliant - and true.

One of my favorite moments in Canon is in BASC when Holmes asks Watson to just sit quietly and smoke while he "preaches at him," marshalling his thoughts. Watson's simple presence is a stone that sharpens his own blade, and very likely calms and focuses his mind.

A Limerick (of sorts)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

There once was a professor from Camford
Who bought all the rejuvenating products he could afford
But monkey glands it would seem
Though he took them by the ream
Only resulted in him being gored

RE: A Limerick (of sorts)

[debriswoman]

Such a foolish thing to do.

attempt clerihew by the not greatly skilled

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Staid, elderly Professor Presbury
Made the whole house--from dog to daughter--worry
Monkey business seems beneath a famous prof
But a man's gotta do...to keep stiff and toff

Re: attempt clerihew by the not greatly skilled

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I think you've absolutely caught the silly spirit of the clerihew ^^ Kudos to you for finding a rhyme for Presbury!