Revenge of the Clerihews, or, Snaps for Effete Poets
by Ernie on 17/01/08 at 1:04 pm
This is the next installment in the ongoing exchange of clerihews between Ernest Hilbert and David Yezzi. David will begin:
Sonneteer Ernie
Was strapped to a gurney
When he attempted to divine
A fifteenth line.
I responded with a riff about his work as a librettist. Arsis is the record label that released the CD of the David Conte opera The Firebird Motel, for which Yezzi wrote the libretti:
In cape and ruff, Da Ponte Dave
Calls ol’ man McClatchy a knave:
Think you’re a big-shot librettist?
Well, hell, you can kiss my Arsis.
He responded:
Hilbert’s Contemporary Poetry Review
Is read by a few
Of the finest minds
Lodged in the finest behinds.
I replied:
Yezzi’s New Criterion
Frets over the Assyrian,
Byron’s guy who promises gore
In the guise of an awful metaphor.
Next week: dueling limericks!
