Sunthorn Phu, the poet everyone can quote

สุนทรภู่ (1786–1855) was a court poet who fell from favour, drank, became a monk, travelled, and wrote in the plain, musical klon that made poetry popular beyond the palace. His journey poems (นิราศ) and the epic พระอภัยมณี, with its pipe that puts enemies to sleep, its sea ogress and its mermaid, are taught in every school. On 26 June, his birthday, schools hold recitation contests and pupils dress as his characters; in 1986 UNESCO honoured him as a great world poet. His memorial is in Klaeng, Rayong, and statues of Phra Aphai and the mermaid stand on Ko Samet. Lines like 'do not trust mankind' are quoted by people who could not tell you where they come from.