| || young, chunk, origin, finale, facing you.
Image from the Internet.
The opening poem contains all the words (or variations of them) from today's Jumble.
Comments are welcomed! And couching them in Poetry is definitely NOT required.
Do not explicitly reveal any of the actual answer words until after closing time, but embedding them surreptitiously in comment sentences is encouraged.young, chunk, origin, finale, facing you.
9 comments:
"Face Facts"
The origin of grand opera is a mystery.
Some say it began with Dafne in 1538,
but the true beginning is lost to history
as the form wasn't set till a much later date.
A relatively young genre it is.
For centuries it rambled along
with no end in sight. It needed a Wiz,
a composer who'd write more than just song.
At first it was just music in chunks,
Chunk One followed by Chunk Two.
Then someone said, "Hey, we're just lunks;
let's call them Acts--that'll be cool!"
Acts One, Two, and Three,
were quickly followed by Four, Five, & Six.
But there didn't appear to be
any end to this bag o' tricks.
Indeed, early operas ran all the way up
to 28 acts & counting. "Composers, rally!"
The word went about, "We need some way to wind up!"
The call went round all the way, Bayreuth to Tin Pan Alley,
till Irving Anonymous--at last!--invented the Grand Finale!
~ OMK
Woohoo! Woohoo! What an amazing history of opera worked in a fabulous poetic narrative and analysis, Ol' Man Keith! This will go down as one of my favorite Keith poems ever! Thank you for this morning gift--I loved it!
"Sobering Up"
Henry was quite a hunk,
but sadly was often drunk.
Girlfriend Mary was still quite young,
and onto her boyfriend she clung.
Their romance had a promising origin
but Henry's drinking made its fate seem grim.
One day as they walked down an alley,
they confronted their likely finale.
She said, "Henry, I have to be facing you
to tell you, sadly, we're through."
Henry finally his flaw understood,
that he had to dry up and be good.
After months of rehab he called her
and they met--he no longer appalled her.
Now, thanks to his efforts at mending,
their love has a happy ending.
Misty ~ The lyrics to one of my favorite numbers by Bertolt Brecht are very instructive.
Here's how they run in English:
"Happy ending, nice and tidy,
It's a rule I learned in school.
Get your money every Friday,
Happy ending, that's the rule!"
Now, we wouldn't want to call him a cynic, would we?
Happy endings don't just fall in our laps. Your poem makes it very clear that Henry had to work hard to overcome obstacles in order to earn the love and respect of his long suffering Mary. As you say, it was only by understanding "his flaw..."
and "after months of rehab..."
that he was able to turn his life around.
It does reassure us to read how Henry & Mary fared in the end. Thank you for reminding us that marriage can be truly a path to happiness.
Your poem may serve as an object lesson to young couples: stay out of alleys!
~ OMK
Hey, what else rhymes with "finale" except "alley"?
Rally?
That's the first one I used anyway. I chose to use it as an injunction. The noun version may have negative connotations these days, when you think that maybe Henry and Mary could have been the sorts to frequent political rallies. Y'know, those folk who love to chant, "Lock [so-and-so] up!"
But there's also valley, which is a nice place, yes?
And galley, if they have a large enough boat...
~ OMK
____________
PS. Thank you for your kind words about my history of opera. That was one where I had no idea where the clue words would lead me. All I had in mind at the start was the nutty notion the "chunk" could be used instead of "act" in how the sections of an opera might be separated.
I didn't know how I was going to end it until 3/4 of the way through when Erato handed me the "Tin Pan Alley" rhyme.
Then it didn't take long to think of the site that would be the polar opposite of Tin Pan Alley.
On the list of all the places I've wanted to visit but never got to, Bayreuth is near the top.
~ OMK
Solve wasn't hard today. #3,4 I notice took some work.
Something from the CC, oh yeah, ISOLDE got me reading all about Wagner including the Dresden riot of 1849.
And we had the "Sot" with the DTs today too.
OMK you ran AMOK today which is never a bad thing. From Daphne to Tin Pan Alley.
Great fun.
WC
Valley, rally, galley, dally, oh my goodness, there are probably so many more 'finale' rhymes out there, aren't there, Sally? Love your description of how you put that opera poem together. What a great writer you are.
Looking forward to your poems tomorrow, Wilbur and Owen.
Now you've got my head swelling out of its beanie!
Truth to tell, I am as surprised as anyone at how these things come into my brain and out of my hands.
But nothing surprises any of us as to how our layers of consciousness work as solving crosswords and jumbles and composing responses.
~ OMK
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