Academic Graffiti [by W. H. Auden]

Auden collected his clerihews under the title Academic Graffiti (1952, 1970). Here are several of my favorites from the Auden oeuvre:

When Karl Marx
Found the phrase ‘financial sharks,’
He sang a Te Deum
In the British Museum.

*

Mallarmé
Had too much to say:
He could never quite
Leave the paper white.

*

When the young Kant
Was told to kiss his aunt,
He obeyed the Categorical Must
But only just.

*

Lord Byron
Once succumbed to a Siren:
His flesh was weak,
Hers Greek.

— DL

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Author: The Best American Poetry