Namely, 56

NAMELY

eponyms (EP-uh-nimz)

words based on or derived from a person's name.

First Known Use: mid-19^th century

“What’s in a Name?”

Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, 2.2­­

56: clerihew [KLARE-uh-hew]: a humorous verse of two rhyming couplets about a famous person named in one of the rhymes (from Edmund Clerihew Bentley, 1875–1956, the British novelist famous for writing them; first known use of word, 1928)

To me she wrote a clerihew—

I was so touched—but what to do?

I tried a sonnet—such a dud.

And then a ballad—purest crud.

I wracked my brain—could not conceive

What I should do. But just believe

What happened next—amazing thing:

I knelt and offered … diamond ring!

But she said, “No. I couldn’t wed

A man whose poetry is dead.”

Rejection! Oh, my life was through!

But then I wrote a clerihew.

I texted it to her that day.

She texted back, “Now that’s the way!”

And we were married—very fast.

It is a marriage that will last,

For she and I write clerihews—

They keep us from the darkest blues.

And we are happy to the core.

(I won’t try sonnets anymore!)

One of the first clerihews:

Sir Humphrey Davy

Abominated gravy.

He lived in the odium
Of having discovered Sodium.