Posts Tagged ‘Presidential Poetry’

Presidential Clerihews (Light Verse about Bush and Carter)

Friday, February 11th, 2011

I’m experimenting with a new (to me) type of light verse: the clerihew. Wikipedia provides several examples and describes the form as follows:

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

* It has four lines of irregular length (for comic effect); the third and fourth lines are usually longer than the first two

* The rhyme structure is AABB; the subject matter and wording are often humorously contrived in order to achieve a rhyme

*The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of the subject’s name.

I’ve written a pair of clerihews about two former U.S. Presidents, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush:

Jimmy Carter,
Energy martyr.
Warned we’d be debtors,
Looked lousy in sweaters.

George W. Bush,
A pain in the tush.
Less nasty and brainy
Than running mate Cheney.

Dear Ralph: Go Away!

Monday, February 25th, 2008

I used to think Ralph Nader keeps running for president because he’s an egomaniac and a blowhard.  But I’m starting to suspect that he suffers from Dubya-disease — he needs to feel relevant. 

And now it’s time for a limerick:

Dear Ralph: Go Away!
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Ralph Nader has surfaced again
To proclaim he’s a prince among men
And our nation’s salvation.
Give up your fixation,
Ralph. Find a new hobby. Try zen.

For more Ralph Nader humor, check out Ralph Nader, ‘Unsafe At Any Age,’ by Don Davis and Nader Announces Plan To Wreck Election, But Prominent Crackpots Are Cool To Bid, by Andy Borowitz. And for a serious take on the topic, there’s Ralph Nader, Tragedy And Farce, by Dick Polman.