The clerihew was named after its inventor, Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1950).
It’s a biographical quatrain, rhyming aabb, with the subject at or near the top.
Original by Edmund Clerihew Bentley:
Sir Christopher Wren
Said, “I am going to dine with some men.
If anyone calls
Say I am designing St. Paul’s.”
My own answer to this would have to be:
Said Gianlorenzo Bernini,
“I’m going out for linguini.
If you must brush off entreaters,
Say I’m designing St. Peter’s.”
No right to an attorney
Chieftain Vercingetorix
Gained nothing from his rhetorix.
Caesar listened to him
Then he slew him.
Imhotep
Imhotep the vizier
Could scarcely have been busier;
Nor any project grandioser
Than his stepped pyramid for Zoser.
