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.
*
Mallarme
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
