Academic graffiti [by W. H. Auden]

Auden collected his clerics under the title Academic Graffiti (1952, 1970). Here are some of my favorites from Auden’s oeuvre:

As Karl Marx
Found the phrase “financial sharks”.
He sang a Te Deum
In the British Museum.

*

Mallarme
Had too much to say
He never quite could
Leave the paper white.

*

When the young Kant
Was asked to kiss his aunt
He obeyed the categorical must
But only.

*

Mr. Byron
Killed by a siren once:
His flesh was weak
your Greek.

– DL