The
art of Biography
Is different from Geography.
Geography is about maps,
But Biography is about chaps.
Sir
Christopher Wren
Said, 'I am going to dine with some men.
If anyone calls
Say I am designing St. Paul's.'
Sir
Humphrey Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.
John
Stuart Mill,
By a mighty effort of will,
Overcame his natural bonhomie
And wrote 'Principles of Economy.'
What
I like about Clive
Is that he is no longer alive.
There is a great deal to be said
For being dead.
Edward
the Confessor
Slept under the dresser.
When that began to pall,
He slept in the hall.
Chapman
& Hall
Swore not at all.
Mr Chapman's yea was yea,
And Mr Hall's nay was nay.
--all above by Edmund Clerihew Bentley
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Ate more shepherd's pie than spaghetti.
His
favorite animal was the wombat.
He painted knights in armor, but was never in combat.
--H. T. Kirby-Smith
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Hardly ever went out to dine.
Be the menu never so abundant,
He found "green leafy lettuce salad" tautological and redundant.
--H. T. Kirby-Smith
John Milton
Never stayed in a Hilton
Hotel.
It was just as well.
--W. H. Auden
From: Khalil Ayoub:
Poor Bertrand Russell;
Life was a tussle.
He got sciatica
Writing Principia Mathematica.