Six Poets (Clerihews) Poem by Paul Hansford

Alfred Lord Tennyson
was very fond of venison,
but he never had it when dining with the queen –
she was far too mean.

Oscar Wilde
in his lifetime was frequently reviled.
If he had lived today
he’d have had no problem being gay.

Ogden Nash,
wrote more verses whenever he ran short of cash.
Some critics declared his style was rank,
but he just cried all the way to the bank.

Gertrude Stein
used to like a dropp of wine,
but I think she must have had more than one glass
when she wrote “Pigeons on the grass alas.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
who suffered not only from Aquaphobia (a morbid fear of drowning) ,
but also from Tyriophobia (an irrational fear of cheese) ,
nevertheless had no trouble writing Sonnets from the Portuguese.

Ezra Pound
seems to have been the best poet Eliot had found.
He called him “il miglior fabbro, ” so
must have thought him pretty fabuloso.