Brainstorming about history, politics, literature, religion, and other topics from a 'gypsy' scholar on a wagon hitched to a star.
And likewise anonymous...Black Widow
Spider
eyed her
dear-
to-be.
"Bide here,
spider
dear
to me."
Tried her.
Spider!
Dear-
ie me.
Died, her
spider
dear-
to-be.
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 4:52 AM
13 comments
I am a retired professor. I last taught at Ewha Womans University, mostly composition, research writing, and cultural issues, but also the occasional graduate seminar on Gnosticism and Johannine theology and the occasional undergraduate course on European history. My doctorate is in history (U.C. Berkeley), with emphasis on religion and science. My thesis is on John's gospel and Gnosticism. I'm also an award-winning writer, and I recommend my novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, to anyone interested. I'm originally from the Arkansas Ozarks, but my academic career -- funded through doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships (e.g., Fulbright, Naumann, Lady Davis) -- has taken me through Texas, California, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Israel and has landed me in Seoul, South Korea. I've also traveled to Mexico, visited much of Europe, including Moscow, and touched down briefly in a few East Asian countries. Hence: "Gypsy Scholar."
13 Comments:
I take it this is you, Jeffery? Far more clever than the banal Wonderdog.
By the way, I'm flattered that the good professor posted my trifling lines.
Wonderdog, you wrote a good poem, better than my 'anonymous' effort.
Anyone who would dare rhyme "defiance" with "giants" -- and succeed -- deserves sustained applause.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
I say "bravo" to both of you. I've always envied the poets among us. I couldn't write a good poem to save my life.
Here was my last attempt, at about age 8, I think:
My cousin Mike is eleven years old.
His hair is reddish and also gold.
He is known as Mike the Great
And he eats everything on his plate.
Jeffery, great rhymes in the spider poem. Since we're conducting a poetry workshop, I'm curious whether you were tempted to write:
Spider
spied her
dear-
to-be.
I like your way better, though.
:D Very nice and quite clever
Kate Marie, I thought briefly about "spied her" due to the identical sound of "spider" and "spied her" but rejected it as too expected and conventional, whereas "eyed her" is more unexpected and connotative of hidden intent.
By the way, your poem at 8 surpassed anything that I was writing at that age, so perhaps you shouldn't have given up so soon.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Saur Kraut, it's nice that you and others like my spider poem, but Wonderdog's is really much better.
Off topic ... has anyone else noticed that "Wonderdog" spelled backwards is "God red now"?
That sounds almost meaningful...
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
conquering arachnophobia?
More falling prey to it.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Jeffery, per rhyming "defiance" and "giants"; as a man of letters and learning on the subject of poetry, what are your thoughts on rhyming words that corrolate phonetically but not in more proximate spelling? I've always thought it to be cheating the true lyrical discipiline.
Well, I'm not quite sure that I understand your question, but spelling in English is a bi- ... I mean a bastard.
But let me try to understand the question:
"[W]hat are ... [my] thoughts on rhyming words that corrolate phonetically but not in more proximate spelling?"
By "correlate phonetically," you mean ... "rhyme"? Well, if they rhyme, they rhyme, right? Or do you mean that they don't quite rhyme? But ... what do you mean by "not in more proximate spelling"? Proximate to what? You mean if they're spelled correctly? As in some words can rhyme in colloquial English but not in standard English?
Or are you talking about "sight rhymes"? Words that are spelled similarly but do not rhyme? I don't like those, but in many cases from earlier poetry, they did rhyme in the past. Like the children's prayer of blessing before a meal:
God is great.
God is good.
Let us thank him
For this food.
Amen.
The words "good" and "food" don't rhyme in current American English, but I'll bet that they did in the past.
But I still think that I haven't understood your question.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
I think wonderdog means when you say the words, your pronounciation makes them appear to rhyme. For example, defiance and giants, some of us don't actually pronounce the /t/ in giants, so it sounds more like giance. Now if giants was spelled that way, it would rhyme and have the same end spelling or "proximate" to use his word.
Thanks for the translation, Cynthia. You pretty much have it.
Sorry, guys. As a lawyer, I'm trained to sound obtuse and incoherent.
Well, Wonderdog, as a literary critic, I'm trained to find all sorts of obscure meanings, so we're even.
But ... Wonderdog, Cynthia ... does anyone pronounce the "t" in "giants"? Doesn't it really, truly rhyme with "defiance"?
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
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