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| _tulip, abate, coupon, disown, a case in point.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.
ReplyDeleteThe two form…
”A Case (that won’t disa-) Point”
When the Tulip Mania abated in 1637,
Dutchmen gave up on their little slice of heaven.
A coupon to purchase at a fixed price
proved worthless. At best, a roll of the dice.
Max & Bertie disowned their monopoly tickets
but vowed to keep a vigorous line to kibbutz
in support whereof each hocked his ring,
and said, “We shtill shell die butts vile dey zing
off der beauty of Zuyder Zee!
(Come lisshen to vee!)
for Hope ish ee-dernal in der Lowlant Shpring!”
~ OMK
The madness of crowds is a documented frenzy,
ReplyDeleteA case in point was the tulip bulb regency.
It lasted three years, that the bulbs were king,
Then it abated, tho in Holland tulips are yet a thing!
Speculators disown it, say it can't happen today.
But look at bitcoins and the prices people pay!
In a few years, this fad will go boom.
We'll see two-for-one coupons begin to bloom.
Wow, great minds. I wrote my poem before reading yours, Keith, but we both started with the tulip mania. Actually, given the words we had to work with, I guess that's no mystery.
ReplyDeleteYou make a smart connection, Owen, between that craze and today’s crypto-coin madness.
ReplyDeleteAt least it allowed you to write your entire piece in English!
I don’t know whether my attempt at a Dutch accent comes across on the screen quite as well as it sounds to my ear.
I used to teach summer classes at William & Mary. It tickles me to think that William, co-monarch of England, probably sounded like this!
~ OMK
"Affection"
ReplyDeleteKate's affection for her mate
did never abate
from their very first date.
His gifts, which she would never disown
were sweet and not overblown,
like the tulip and the jewel stone.
In return, she gave him a coupon
and invited him to her prom.
He responded with much grace
and made a point to make his case:
that he wanted to marry her.
And when she said 'Yes,'
he kissed her face.
Amazing that both Ol' Man Keith and Owen referred to the TULIP MANIA of 1637--something I had never heard of before. Neat Dutch accent, OMK. And interesting to point out Holland's continuing tulip interest, Owen.
ReplyDeleteI love tulips, but have never grown them on my property, possibly because having to dig up the ground to plant the bulbs just felt like too much work.
AT least you were able to avoid writing of de tulpenmanie, Misty, giving a note of variety to our day.
ReplyDeleteI was aware of that curious bit of capitalistic history, but had to Google it to see how long the thing lasted. I expected it to be years because of slow travel in those days, but No. It was only from Nov '36 to Feb '37.
That shows how timing is everything in the free market.
I mean, if I were an old investor in fall 1636, and I bought tulip bulbs in late November and sold them for an enormous profit in December or January, I might have died a happy man if I were to kick off in early 1637, none the wiser.
Anyway, I see you are back with your happiness theme, trading personal items prior to a mutually agreeable wedding. In the words of a favorite old poem, by Robt. Browning:
"The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn:
God's in his heaven—
All's right with the world."
--from Pippa Passes, written in the day when it was OK to be naive and optimistic.
OMK, I looked up Tulip Mania on Wikipedia and they give the date(s) from 1634 to February 1637, about two or three years rather than just a few months. But I'm sure you would still have been a happy investor, and glad you had three years of enjoying your tulips and not just a few months.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words (when I can imagine a much more critical response)to my never-ending, constant "happiness theme." And I love your Robert Browning poem and will save it in my poetry file.
Maybe I've already said this, but I think my crazy optimistic naivety must have come from having been divorced and single for almost thirty years, from my early twenties to the age of 48, when I met the man of my dreams and the love of my life, my sweet Rowland Davis, and then enjoyed 21 perfect and wonderful years of marriage with him until I lost him in 2015. This felt like such a surprising and unexpected miracle in my life that it just gave me a permanently happy outlook. But that may not last forever, if I ever have an accident or develop an illness or have to deal with any of the other things that people in their seventies and later years inevitable have to deal with. So my happy poems may not last forever, but I'll always be grateful for the happy years. (Enough said--sorry to go on so long).
Thanks, Misty; you caused me to look further in the Wiki article. I see that the dates I offered referred only to when the mania reached "fever pitch."
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that starting in '34 the tulips gained steadily in "value." It was in November '36 that they really "took off."
Earlier, investors were upping the price for bulbs sold by lot and in future commitments, but by that last November individual bulbs and even flowers went for the equivalent of thousands of dollars.
(People can be crazy, right?
But not us.
Right?!)
Nov 1636 was when prices see-sawed up & down--as different investors either wised up or fought at ever higher rates. After mid-Feb '37 you couldn't find a sucker to buy that "Brooklyn Bridge."
I do remember your history with your dear love Rowland. I have great respect for personal experience & certainly understand your predilection for happy endings. It is a mark of an artist (a poet--and I would also argue, a critic) to be able to empathize with those of differing backgrounds.
I was reading last night of the power of imagination, exemplified by a person who said that in her youth she began imagining what life must "feel like" for people who held very different beliefs in religion, in politics & economics, under the law--even as regards patriotism. To this we must add aesthetics & belief in the goodness of others... or Love.
Such exercises of imagination seem to be seriously lacking in our culture these days.
~ OMK
Thank you for your very, very kind response to my comments, OMK--I really appreciate them. And what an interesting insight into "the power of the imagination"--will have to remember that.
ReplyDelete