Clerihews from Biography for Beginners

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.

Edmund Clerihew Bentley