|
|
||
| _going, mossy, dugout, switch, mood swings.Image(s) 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.
14 comments:
Percy was a romantic sort,
Who would switch to days of yore.
A calmer time, when men paid court,
And garish displays forswore.
Of drifting in a dugout canoe
With his ladylove and a guitar,
'Neath a canopy where Spanish moss grew,
They could watch an evening star.
Instead of going to a raucous arena
Where a rock-star supposedly sings
The mood of the crowd is hysteria --
No, that's not the way Percy swings!
As Owen mentioned recently, sometimes the clue words just line themselves up.
Here they fell in place--in my first line. I had to work at it to create a second line, to include today's solution:
"Anapestic pentameter"
The switch hitter slipped going into the mossy dugout.
His mood took a swing for the worse, as we heard the mug shout!
~ OMK
"Romance"
They told her she should her boyfriend ditch
and look for a guy a bit more rich.
But Sarah simply refused to switch.
Sam was friendly and out-going,
he helped her with mowing and taught her rowing,
and, when her car broke,
he helped with the towing.
Sam took Sarah to a baseball game
with seats near the dug-out
where he'd cheer and shout
like a crazy boy scout.
She would serve him great food
which put him in a good mood.
Her green salad was mossy
and the dressing was glossy.
And so, Sam her praises sings
and, in addition, her mood he swings
by offering her a choice
between two lovely wedding rings.
Two wonderful poems, Owen and Ol' Man Keith--many thanks for this weekend gift! You both got all the Jumble words into your verses and, (OMK, I can't believe you got all four of them into your first line.
Owen, Percy is clearly a more sophisticated suitor than Sam. But I don't think Sarah will switch--especially since Sam is already a step ahead of him in courtship.
Keith, I forgot to say that I looked up "anapestic pentameter".
Here's what the website ("Mammoth Memory")said:
"We are unable to find any examples of anapestic pentameter, so this is obviously not a popular combination. Please let us know if you come across any."
You might consider letting them know.
My humble lines are not "pure," Misty. Just as with most iambic pentameter, the common English rhythm, they include variations. They are named for the dominant beats, or "feet," but they are not 100% anapests.
Each of my two lines starts with an iambus (u /).
But while rare, pure anapestic pentameters are not that hard to find. My first Google came up with this:
"As we walked down the lane in the sweltering heat of the day,
We saw men making hay in a field in the old-fashioned way."
It gets your attention, doesn't it? But you can see why you wouldn't want to keep it up for very long.
It would pound the fillings from your teeth!
~ OMK
BTW, the more common use of anapests is in a four-beat line, anapestic tetrameter.
It lets you breathe a little more often..
Recognize this?
"'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."
~ OMK
You're right, OMK, the lines you offer us in your two messages above do indeed work like anapests.
I see you got all the clue words as well, Misty. I appreciated your lines where you broke from a steady beat--like your line with internal rhymes ("he helped her with mowing and taught her rowing").
And also your unusual start to stanza two, where you didn't rhyme until the end of the 2nd printed line, making it actually one long line, ("Sam took Sarah to a baseball game with seats near the dug-out"). You do something similar at the end ("...by offering her a choice between two lovely wedding rings").
When you break expectations like that, it reminds me of Ogden Nash. Check out how he uses lines of different length quite freely--in a piece like his "Will Consider Situation," for example.
He seems to meander at times, but ALWAYS lands with a rhyme, often an amusing one.
His rhymes are reliable, so he gains the reader's trust. Then, when he occasionally "mills" with his grammar, you know he knows what he's doing.
~ OMK
Well, I looked up Ogden Nash's "Will Consider Situations" (terrible site, with the last line not complete) and it's certainly intriguingly modernistic, but also a bit of a mess, in my opinion, OMK.
I hate to say it, but I consider my silly verse a bit tidier and neater. But who am I to judge.
Well, yes--to "tidier and neater."
Very regular too.
My only concern is what to make of it when you break rank with yourself?
~ Ezra
The baseball theme had me recall these lines from awhile back. This is long but I amended the original to slip in today's J-words and the riddle-solution
It was the last of the ninth and Boston's adoring fans
Saw another World Series about to die in the pan.
Much moss had grown in Fenway over decades of anguish
As a group they were enured to see hopes vanish
In the oddest ways imaginable. Were the Redsox cursed?
But wait Millar just walked and from the dugout is the well versed [Roberts]
.
Could the Sox finally catch a break?
Davy must be careful, can't make a mistake.
The coach had decoded the catcher's signs
90 feet was the distance between the two lines
It seemed as if his lead at first had shrank to just six feet
Could he steal second, Roberts was known to be fleet.
The pitch is thrown, the runner's going, they'll catch him if they can
A cloud of dust and there standing on second is a giant of a man.
Now the pressure was on the Yanks, things had switched hands
The ever dependable Mueller's up, there's a murmur in the stands
The situation was familiar to beleaguered Bo-Sox fans
'Will they pull the carrot again?' Went the murmur through the stands
Since the horse drawn days through Charley on the MTA
They'd come so close only to see victory snatched away
But wonder of wonders Billy Mueller snuck a grounder threw
Davy Roberts scampered home and cavorted 'cross the plate
Talk about a mood swing, they'd tied the game but too soon to celebrate.
But in extra innings, Papi went yard, Redsox win. Who knew?
Somewhere in this splendid land the Sun was shining bright
Somewhere it was snowy. Somewhere crying in the night.
But there in Boston there was hope and new found faith
Victory that had so often eluded us
was ours, not the funeral wraith
WC
Ironically, the famous one game playoff of 1978 seems fated to repeat this year. The above none was in 2004
Well, Wilbur, sadly I know nothing about baseball, and so had to focus just on the words in your long and complicated poem.
But there they all were, all four plus the "mood swings" solution at the end. Yay!
Made me happy, and made a good end to my day. Many thanks--and see you tomorrow!
I have a busy Sunday morning with Zoom phone call with my son and family, and another with an old woman friend, and another with a friend of my late Rowland. So I may not be able to start responding until later in the afternoon. But I will check out the Jumble blog and do my best to respond, as I always do.
Post a Comment