My Dear Clerihew

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Sherlock requiring a foil,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Slots in Watson --
To tie knots in.

Clerihew for GGM

GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ

Thinking of what Karl Marx says,
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gave to all of those who read
Each according to his need.

Clerihew for a Big Schoolboy

EDOARDO ALBINATI

Edoardo Albinati,
Clever, skinny, and spotty,
Found they could be cruel
In The Catholic School.

Clerihew of Domestic Bliss

PAUL VERLAINE

"How's your boyfriend treating you?
Is he still beating you?"
"Can't complain,"
Says Verlaine.

Anti-Falangist Clerihew

JAVIER CERCAS

Javier Cercas,
Drawing near us,
Wants to tell us thrilling stories
Of betrayals, love, and glories.

Clerihew for a Party

JEAN STAFFORD

Jean Stafford
Had a laugh heard
In every corner of the room;
Hard and loud, presaging doom.

Clerihew for Rabbit Angstrom

JOHN UPDIKE

When first he made his Rabbit run,
He'd decades left before he'd done.
Just like
Updike.

Clerihew for a Gourmand

PIETRO ARENTINO

Pietro Arentino
Loved a maraschino
And or any kind of ripe red cherry.
His appetites were legendary.

Clerihew for a Heart in Missolonghi

LORD BYRON

Seems Byron's
Environs
Didn't suit in the least,
So off to Greece, (may he rest in peace.)

Clerihew for a Most Eminent Junky

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
Seeking to console a smidge
The loss of hope,
Took to dope.

Clerihew on a Stormy Night

MARY SHELLEY

Mary Shelley
Reduced to jelly
Many a stout-hearted male
With her horrible tale.

Clerihew for a Tubercular Beauty

JOHN KEATS

Looks John Keats,
Between the sheets,
Lacked the virility
For much beyond a negative capability.

Clerihew Up in the Old Hotel

JOSEPH MITCHELL

Joseph Mitchell
Without a hitch'll
Still be read
When The New Yorker's dead.

Clerihew for a Canonical Brute

PHILIP ROTH

Less Everyman
Than Tarzan
sans loincloth,
Philip Roth.

Clerihew for a Rock Star Romantic

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

P. B. Shelley,
On his belly,
Wrote out Ozymandias
and drank a pint of brandy thus.

Clerihew for Ella Gwendolen Hamer

JEAN RHYS

Jean Rhys
Found peace
In Cheriton Fitzpaine, a small village in Devon.
(Fame nor drink could make of that, Heaven.)

Clerihew for the Humble Explorer

LOREN EISELEY

Not unwisely
Loren Eiseley
Suggests we study with intensity
The whole, humbling immensity.

Clerihew for Classic Crime

CALVIN TRILLIN

Wish Trillin
Was still in-
To villains,
As per his Killin's.

Seven Storey Clerihew

THOMAS MERTON

Though a certain
Thomas Merton
Saw seven stories to his mountain,
After six, I must admit that I'd stopped countin'.

Clerihew for a Great Ego

MARGUERITE DURAS

If with the past one is fighting,
In her Me and Other Writing
Marguerite Duras
Explains this to us.