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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
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Radio
I left it
on when I
left the house
for the pleasure
of coming back
ten hours later
to the greatness
of Teddy Wilson
"After You've Gone"
on the piano
in the corner
of the bedroom
as I enter
in the dark
from New and Selected Poems by David Lehman
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