TODAY, ghoulish Google invites you to pull up an urn;
To beguile, to be-wonder, here’s one dark Doodle to learn:
Seated at left is the man of letters, Edward Gorey;
As the be-scarfed Doubtful Guest tells the rest of this story...
His practical cats, drawn for Eliot, lounge on the “G”;
Each letter inspired by the style of “Amphigorey.”
Finely wrought lines, in black and white, do justice and the job;
Like feline to string, he spun yarns of the playful macabre.
Deranged cousins, hapless children, “Tinies” of Gashlycrumb;
It’s a thin line between storybook, and dark “Gorey-book” fun.
He hatched book plots (and graveyard plots), he cross-hatched raven-black lines;
He drew from Carroll and Lear to twist his “nonsense” valentines.
In the family of Addams, he scared up rich history;
His “Dracula” won Tony, he helped PBS find “Mystery.”
He inspired Tim Burton and helped the Tiger Lilies bloom;
Nine Inch Nails soared on his style, backed with industrial boom.
The wrought irony, of course, is that this bearded recluse,
Created art that reached ‘round the globe, like Dickens, or a Seuss.
He tickled us to death, with the magic of a dark story;
And now behind the Doodle, you know the rest of the Gorey.
Happy 88th birthday to the late, great Edward Gorey (1925-2000).
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