Friday, October 9, 2020

Dunsany in a Strange Place

 A friend recently pointed out the following poem in Christopher Morley's volume The Middle Kingdom: Poems 1929-1944 (1944).  Dunsany is rarely the subject of a poem, and here is one that plays on his names (his surname is pronounced dun-SAY'-nee, and does indeed rhyme with "zany"):

“A Night at an Inn”
(Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany - Who’s Who)

To BEDWARD, says EDWARD.
I’m on, cries JOHN.
It helps to shorten the night, quoth MORETON.
Just a glass of port, to relax, says DRAX.
And now we’ve drunk it, mumbles PLUNKETT,
Come on, old zany.
And so all five, with yawns and snorts,
Having partaken their Cinque Ports,
Are merged in bed as LORD DUNSANY.

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