Poetry: I, Sir Arthur: Gen

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Title: I, Sir Arthur
Rating: Gen
Poetic Form: It started off a clerihew and grew longer.
Length: 174
Notes: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR ARTHUR!

I, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
would rather be boiled in a vat of hot oil
than have a true Renaissance vocation
reduced to him, that tiresome creation.
Why, oh, why is this world so remiss?
Won’t you recall who brought skiing to the Swiss?
And the war! Which? Why, the Boer!
You’d think that the world might
since it made me a knight.
What about bodybuilding? And Portsmouth United?
But do let’s forget when my cricket kit ignited
[Ball to matches in pocket. I went up like a rocket.]
I solved crimes! I wrote history!
I even went looking for Agatha Christie!
So many answers to so many calls,
save for those cottage girls and their damned paper dolls!
And, uh, that once I nearly poisoned myself.
Oh, why doesn’t Professor Challenger sit as proud on the shelf?
Oh, well. If you must
remember me thus
I suppose
I’ll lie in repose
he who created the world’s greatest sleuth, or so the world claims,
he who begat Sherlock Holmes
and his loyal chronicler
James.

Comments

[equusentric.livejournal.com]

That last line made me actually LOL.

[debriswoman]

This is excellent
Such a wonderful ending and you slip in some great references:-)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

The ending is brilliant! And so many wonderful mentions. I particularly liked the setting fire to his cricket kit.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yea! So glad to make you laugh.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Glad you liked the ending and Sir Arthur did lead a pretty colourful life. I only cherry-picked the events that (sort-of) rhymed.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Ol' Artie led quite the life. Yes, why did he have a box of matches in his pocket? And who could've predicted that a hit with a ball would set him afire? It sounds like something that would happen to Minor, actually, but I'm glad it happened to ACD.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Presumably he needed 'a lucifer to light his fag'.

I'm assuming these weren't safety matches, and the force had been sufficient to set them on fire.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

A doctor smoking while playing sports! I suppose cricket isn't like rugby where you're running all the time.

Yes, those were the circs.

[tripleransom.livejournal.com]

Hee! I LOL'd also. Poor Sir Arthur.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yes, we love him even though he hates us!

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

That ending is just perfection ^____^

The amount of stuff you managed to include is amazing. I must just give a special mention to So many answers to so many calls,/ save for those cottage girls and their damned paper dolls!/ And, uh, that once I nearly poisoned myself. ^___^

[mafief.livejournal.com]

I really like this. It’s one of my favorite things you do where you blend history and your story telling.

As others have said, the ending is perfect and made me giggle.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

So close. SO close.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I like to think ACD was given the knowledge he'd been snookered by two girls in the afterlife. And I haven't forgotten that BMJ letter he wrote, which I found when I did the Sherlock 60 on Devil's Foot. ACD was a true Renaissance man--and thoroughly disgusted with the lot of us!

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! ACD was a colorful character, no stretching involved!

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Like ACD said when he put thar river in Utah nowhere near where it is, 'these little things happen.'