Utterly Inconsequential
Jan. 23rd, 2025 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI asked myself, a propos the final sentence of the previous post, whether Christopher Wren lived to see the completion of St Paul's cathedral. And the answer is, yes, indeed he did.
The building was consecrated in 1697 and the topping out ceremony- with the laying of the final stone- took place in 1708. Wren, meanwhile, carried on living until 1723 and was 90 when he died. This makes me happy, because, so far as I can ascertain, Wren was one of the good guys.
Which puts me in mind of my favourite Clerihew
The Clerihew is a verse form named after its inventor Edmund Clerihew Bentley. It consists of four lines of varying length, rhymed AABB and invariably deals with the biography of some famous person. The point and glory of the Clerihew is to be utterly inconseqential.
Clerihews don't have to be witty, only silly, but Bentley's tribute to Wren is both.....
It goes like this.
Sir Christopher Wren
Said, "I am going to dine with some men.
If anybody calls
Say I'm designing St. Paul's"
The picture (btw) is by the great G.K Chesterton, who was one of Bentley's school chums.
The building was consecrated in 1697 and the topping out ceremony- with the laying of the final stone- took place in 1708. Wren, meanwhile, carried on living until 1723 and was 90 when he died. This makes me happy, because, so far as I can ascertain, Wren was one of the good guys.
Which puts me in mind of my favourite Clerihew
The Clerihew is a verse form named after its inventor Edmund Clerihew Bentley. It consists of four lines of varying length, rhymed AABB and invariably deals with the biography of some famous person. The point and glory of the Clerihew is to be utterly inconseqential.
Clerihews don't have to be witty, only silly, but Bentley's tribute to Wren is both.....
It goes like this.
Sir Christopher Wren
Said, "I am going to dine with some men.
If anybody calls
Say I'm designing St. Paul's"
The picture (btw) is by the great G.K Chesterton, who was one of Bentley's school chums.
