A blogsite offering entertaining oddities since January 2020 at the rate of 30x/month. There are now over seventeen hundred posts in these four years. Images -- poetic (including song-lyrics), photographic, and computer-simulated -- are drawn from daily life as well as from poems and wordplay grouped by topic on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense". The poetry displayed is all original (as are the song-lyrics), although portions evolved through rigorous editing on a collaborative website.
July 1, 2023
JUL 1, Canadiana: Mounties
June 30, 2023
JUN 30, singable satire: "UNDER MY OWN STEAM", part #2
PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "UNDER MY OWN STEAM, part 2" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.
This song is dedicated to the memory of my father. Apart from a fierce determination to retain independent mobility, he was a highly responsible family man and bore little resemblance to the footloose and perhaps rascally hero of this piece. He was however an ardent admirer of rhyming patter, and would likely have enjoyed this song.
I’ve gone every way, Doc
Trekked meandered, tramped traversed, roamed and wandered, shuffled shambled,
Chorus:
June 29, 2023
JUN 29, special events: animal displays and animation, High Park, Toronto
emu |
capybara |
June 28, 2023
JUN 28, poems about parasites: endoparasites
June 27, 2023
JUN 27, duplication: hodge-podge
June 26, 2023
JUN 26, Carolina lowcountry: birding map of Mt. Pleasant SC
June 25, 2023
JUN 25, Submitted Palindromes: Introduction to presenters -- Terse Reverse
June 24, 2023
JUN 24, terminal (poetic) exclamation: EGAD!
Egad, no bondage! and Egad, a bad age! are found in lists of classic palindromic phrases.
June 23, 2023
JUN 23, national and multinational verse: Haiti
You can review our collection of verses about various individual nations, and about the groupings to which they belong, on our topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.
June 22, 2023
JUN 22, homophonous verse: bypassed glitches
Authors' Note: Of course, the concept that bribes would be of benefit to authors submitting to OEDILF is patently nonsensical. There are a certain number of identity rhymes that appear in the database of edited verses there. The prosaic explanation, however, is that these bypassed initial glitches, being rather subtle in comparison with other flaws, are often under-observed and overlooked.
You can view our whole collection on this topic -- verses intentionally crafted with contentious repetition of the rhyming syllables -- in a wider context on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Check the post "Homophonous Verse" by clicking HERE.
June 21, 2023
JUN 21, waterfowl: tricolored (Louisiana) herons
links for any date: scroll over to the calendar-based listings of 'Past Posts' in the righthand column on this page, choose your month of interest, and then select (by clicking) the post of your choice.
June 20, 2023
JUN 20, singable satire: Dusty Springfield sings "BEA WANTS TO KEEP HER EYE ON YOU" ( Inferno, Canto 2)
PASTICHE WITH PARODY SONG-LYRICS.
ORIGINAL SONG: "I Only Want To Be With You", Hawker and Raymonde, as recorded by Dusty Springfield, 1964.
PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "Bea Wants to Keep her Eye on You" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.
BEA WANTS TO KEEP HER EYE ON YOU
(to the tune of "I Only Want to Be with You")
Intro:
I found that lots of artists pictured Inferno,
Like William Blake, Doré and Michelangelo
Our aim is different- to show you more.
A song to chant each Canto, and there's thirty-four;
To meet this challenge well
We’ll have to sing and play like Hell.
Dante:
Io cominciai, “Poeta che mi guidi
Primo che a l’alto passo tu mi fidi
Per che del venire m’abbandono?
Io non Enëa, Paulo non sono
Venirvi, chi’l concede?
Me degno a ciò? - nessuno’l crede."
I started in with Virgil, cause he’s our tour-guide,
“My manhood to those scary depths you plan t’ confide;
What if this adventure I now refuse?
- Aeneas and St. Paul gave this tour bad reviews.
I’m just a wuss, you’re wiser,
But I’m online with Trip Advisor."
Virgil:
S’i’ho bene la tua parola intesa
La tua anima è da viltade offesa
Da questa tema che tu ti solve
Dirotti perch’io venni e di te mi dolve
Tanto mio parlar ti promette
Di tre donne benedette.
Interpreting the apprehension that you’ve shared,
Never mind those apps, I’d say you’re bloody scared
To free you from anguish that you’re wimping out
I’ll tell you why I came and what it’s all about..
Three blessed chicks on high
Sent me to be a friendly spy.
Una bella donna mi chiamò, e m’ebbe ragionato questo
Li occhi lagrimando volse, mi fece del venir più presto.
Cominciò a dirmi…….
The cutest stopped chez moi, and conned me with this latest scoop,
Her tears said rescue him, and save him from his chicken-coop,
Here’s what she told me….…
Beatrice:
O anima cortese mantoana
Di cui la fama durerà lontana
L’amico mio e non de la ventura
È impedito nel cammin, che volt’è per paura
Forse sia già sì smarrito
Per quel ch’i’ho di lui udito.
O, author of the legend of Aeneas
My friend has got himself into a dodgy mess.
You deserve a Pulitzer, your fame lives f’rever,
But he’s stuck on a dead-end road, he’s not that clever;
He might be so damned lost
To rescue him’s not worth the cost.
Temo che sia tardi al soccorso levata
Or movi al suo campare, con la parola ornata
I’son Beatrice che ti faccio andare;
Amor mi mosse, che mi fa parlare;
Quando dinanzi al Segnor sarò
Sovente di te mi loderò.
To help him after I’ve been dawdling seems a reach,
But you might get him rescued, with your flowery speech.
It’s Beatrice who begs you get your ass in gear.
It’s only love that wants to get him out of there.
I’ll praise you to the Lord,
And hope you get a big reward.
Dirotti prontamente da che tu vuo’ saver a dentro
La vostra miseria non m’assale, non temo di venir qua entro
Fiamma non tange.
I’ll tell you right away, about the facts you’d love to learn
Your blues can’t bother me, Hell’s fire doesn’t make me burn.
I’m flame-resistant.
Donna è gentil nel ciel in seggio beato
Questa chiese Lucia in suo dimando
“Combatte la morte, il tuo fedele,”
E venni al loco dov’i’era con Rachele;
“Non odi’l suo pianto, e
Non soccorri quel che t’amò tanto?”
Our blessed Lady up in Heaven’s Chair was seated;
She called on her friend Lucy, and she thus entreated,
“Your faithful friend Dante’s confronting death.”
So Lucy came and told me not to waste one breath.
“Help the guy who loved you so;
Don’t treat him like he’s just some schmo.”
Al mondo non fur mai persone com’io ratte
A far lo pro e a fuggir loro danno dopo fatte
Cotai parole.
I put my make-up on, ran down here in my jogging-suit,
To beg, “Please find him in that slum, please help him find a better route
To get to Heaven.”
Virgil:
E venni a te così com’ella volse
Il cort’ andar del bel monte ti tolse
D’inanzi a quella fiera ti levai
Dunque che è? perché, perché restai
Perché virtude stanca,
Non sei una persona franca.
And so I beat a path up to this dingy wood,
Where any jerk can see the short way UP’s no good.
To climb to God’s City might make more sense
But there’s a junk-yard watch-dog and a barbed-wire fence
A detour can be found – We’ll have to go the long way ’round.
Dante:
“E tanto buono ardire al cor mi corse –
Le vere parole che ti porse
Tu hai con disiderio il cor disposto
Tu duca, tu segnore e tu maestro”
E poi che mosso fue
Un sol volere d’ambedue.
Bea’s words to you have geared me up, inflamed my heart
And now I feel I’m much more ready to depart
My leader, my teacher, yes, you’re the man!
We’re both in this together, and you’ve got the plan.
So down the path we shuffled,
And both of us felt more unruffled.
Intrai, intrai per lo cammino,
Lo cammino alto e silvestro.
Intrai, intrai per lo cammino,
Lo cammino alto e silvestro.
I’d started to enter what was hid
And soon we’d wander off the grid.
I’d started to enter what was hid
And soon we’d wander off the grid.
* In 2011, Fiddlegirl and Tom Turtle posted on AmIRight.com, the parody-song "Circles That You Find In Hell" using the same original song; their contribution summarized the entire story of The Inferno.
June 19, 2023
JUN 19, poetic non-sequitur: ground down (in traffic)
June 18, 2023
JUN 18, personal and family history: Father's Day reminiscence pics xxxxxxxxxxxxx Nate
June 17, 2023
JUN 17, palinku (poetic novelty): meat-eating
In this post, we continue with our novel form of poetic wordplay. Inspired by Japanese haiku poetry, the "palinku" is a terse verse with a total of 17 syllables displayed on three lines. Unlike its earlier English-language forerunners, this concoction does not mandate the precise distribution of the syllables among the three lines, but does stipulate that each word in the poem be included in a palindromic phrase or sentence (i.e. one that can be read either forwards or backwards).
To help the reader discern the origin of the lyrics, each palindrome, generally occupying one of the three lines of the poem, has been color-coded. Readers will note that we have been publishing verses of this type on the 17th of each month.
links for any date: scroll over to the calendar-based listings of 'Past Posts' in the righthand column on this page, choose your month of interest, and then select (by clicking) the post of your choice.
June 16, 2023
JUN 16, lexicon of word-pairs: rhyming binomials Sm- to Z
Matching the selection on the above slide, these include "weed and feed", "wear and tear", and "wine and dine".
You can easily find all of these on our topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE, and following the links.