Hall of names

Creation of the Great One

We call Omnipotent.

You're but a bio-specimen,

A blend that heaven-sent;

Proud forbears got to choose a name,

A name that's only lent

To you for the time you're here;

Unless of course you spent

Your time in service to mankind;

Service which before you went

Was publicised and loved,

So all could say you made your dent.

Such gifts we ought not to forget;

And so you get to pay no rent

To grace the hall of fame;

And keep the name that someone lent

                           In the retire-this-name game.

So Aaron came to mean just Hank;

Hank Aaron means home run.

Kennedy conjures JFK

The charismatic one.

Pasteur lives on as Mister

Bacterial fermentation.

And Faraday was Michael

For electric innovation.

Sir James Young Simpson pioneer

Of Gynaecology.

Thomas Alva Edison

The name that gave us light.

Orville and brother Wilbur Wright

Took mankind into flight.

Sir Winston Churchill Marlborough

Warrior and Statesman,

Pierre and Madame we still know,

For Madame Curie's radium.

Galilei Galileo

Good for telescopy.

With Newton gone to Isaac

For Calculus and Gravity.

As Lincoln stands for doing good

Abe Lincoln means fair play.

Charles Robert Darwin has withstood

Evolution theory's thorny ride.

From William Thompson, Lord Kelvin

The mariner's compass guide.

Archimedes of Syracuse took credit

For  Hydrostatics and Geometry,

Wireless and radio guess who led it?

Marchese Marconi

Shakespeare's claimed by William

His arch types permanent.

To Ferdinand de Lesseps'

Panama and Suez went.

Alexander Graham Bell

You don't know him?

Well, well, well

You're only playing games

Tell a phoney to ring that bell

Retiring all those names.