April 22 - Alfred Burt (The Musical Birthday Series)

Alfred Burt (22 April 1920 –7  February 1954) wrote a series of yearly Christmas carols for friends and relatives.  After his death they were published and several of them have become well known.

Today's offering is a clerihew. The Wikipedia description is accurate: "A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bently.  The first line is the name of the poem's subject, usually a famous person put in an absurd light, or revealing something unknown or spurious about them. The rhyme scheme is AABB, and the rhymes are often forced. The line length and metre are irregular." 

Two important statements in print on the clerihew are Jacques Barzun's verse introduction to The Clerihews of Paul Hogan (Wesleyan UP, 1985) and Gavin Ewart's introduction to The Complete Clerihews of E. Clerihew Bentley (Oxford UP, 1981).

Some Children See Him 

Alfred Burt

Would have been hurt

To hear his favorite carol

Sung in Elf by Will Farrell.