A Preliminary Caricature

 

Daily Dose

From Kabbalah and Criticism, by Harold Bloom

INFLUENCE

"'Influence' is an ambivalent word to use in any discourse about literature, for 'influence' is as complex a trope as language affords."

From The Necessity of Misreading

A Caricature

A Caricature

A Caricature

Clerihew for a Political Economist

WALTER BAGEHOT

Walter Bagehot
Had no gadget
With which to calculate "Bagehot's Dictum"
Still history's yet to contradict him.

Clerihew for an English Master

V. S. PRITCHETT

To reclaim its glory,
The English short story
Needed a champ which it
Found in Victor Sawdon Pritchett.

Clerihew for the Flower of New Jersey

V
AN WYCK BROOKS

Van Wyck Brooks
Wrote definitive books
On how we broke our English fetters
And invented truly American letters.

A Caricature

Clerihew of the Misplaced Eye

GEORGES BATAILLE

In Story of the Eye
Georges Bataille
Wrote a book so grotesque
Left a stain on his desk.

A Caricature

Clerihew with Cigar Butt

H. L. MENCKEN

Henry Louis Mencken
When taken in
Doses small
Can be a ball.

A Caricature

A Caricature

A Caricature

A Caricature

A Caricature

Clerihew for a Visionary Queen

GARY INDIANA

Veiled in glittering arcana
Gary Indiana
Turned his penetrating gaze
Back upon those Vile Days.

A Caricature

Clerihew for a Cold Winter's Night

DOROTHY PARKER

The days growing darker
Dorothy Parker
Settled in
With books and gin.