Brief Candles: 101 Clerihews

By Henry S. Taylor

Book Overview

Not since W. H. Auden's Academic Graffiti has a poet of serious substance indulged so thoroughly in clerihews, those miniature (and often outrageously fictional) biographies invented just over 100 years ago by E. C. Bentley (1875--1956). In Brief Candles, Pulitzer Prize winner Henry Taylor takes on with hilarious irreverence people usually taken most seriously -- members of the Supreme Court, poets laureate, literary theorists, Whitewater celebrities, and New Testament figures -- demonstrating through 101 clerihews that one of the primary purposes of poetry is to have fun, even while craftsmanship remains paramount. Taylor's shimmering wit and resourceful use of rhyme combine with whimsical illustrations by Heather Alexander to make these tiny playful pieces a rare treat for all readers. In times of tribulation, we can read the Book of Lamentations, or the Psalms, or just as likely, Henry Taylor's clerihews. They are, as he calls them, Brief Candles, but they do give a satisfying light.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807125644
• ISBN13: 9780807125649
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: LSU Press
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.4" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Above All, Voice

The poet admits "brief." So these candles are. But each extinguished by thumb and index moistened by an expert tongue. How I wish that the average poem in the Atlantic Monthly could offer the wit and verve and originality of the average line in this enjoyable collection.