30 December 03

Avoiding the Latinate

walnutink.jpgMaria from Alembic has got me thinking that perhaps I equate the Latinate in English with the bovine. At any rate, I’ve been musing on Tolkien’s rabid avoidance of it and have attempted to write a sonnet (below) containing no Latin. The problem with this is that a) you immediately get taken for a demented Scotsman, and b) you sound like you’re auditioning for Radio Shakespeare. It’s all in fun, of course, so please have a go if you feel so inclined. Anyone who spots a latin word gets a bottle of ink (poem title excluded, but as you can see, there will be plenty of ink to go around; send me your snailmail address and I’ll send one along). Oh, and one other problem with making walnut ink: your house smells like Grendel’s mother’s lair for about a week. Think wet dog plus badger carcass. Pleasant, yes? (If I had done this in October like I was supposed to, the windows could all have happily been open.)

Alchemy in Brown

The walnuts sat forlorn along the road
And, scattered by the howling wind, they thought
(Since walnuts think, crass doubter: brains they hold)
Their fate lay in a headlong drop to nought
Bestowed by crows: on railway sidings hurled,
To tear asunder husk from hull and meat;
The black birds cawing at their underworld.
No murder was more gleeful, feast more meet.

She wandered slowly through the side-strewn rain
To stoop and gather (carefully, though sore).
Into the basket, then the pot again
And sat to simmer for three days or more.
The walnuts sighed and gave their souls to ink
For words and drawings: life beyond the brink.

Posted by at 06:26 PM in Books and Language | Link |
  1. Hard as I tried to get myself a bit of that walnut “soul” in the form of ink, I couldnt find any latinates in your poem…. I did try to nab since as a likely suspect, but the only Latin I could pin on it, with Websters help, was a possible distant link to seitus.

    And thanks for posting this sonnet, along with the vivid description of what it takes to turn walnut brains into a conduit (a river of sorts) for thoughts and pictures. Not only did I learn something new, but I felt entertained, too!

    Happy New Year!


    — maria    30. December 2003, 20:40    Link
  2. I can’t spy any Latin either – it does sound Shakespearean.
    Good fun! Happy New Year.

    — Jenny    31. December 2003, 09:36    Link
  3. Well, *I* think the brain part is especially brilliant, and the whole poem quite . . . WHOLE. Well done.

    — Doc Rock    31. December 2003, 12:30    Link
  4. WONderful, Pica!! A terrific poem that amused and delighted me, especially the third line. I’m no good at spotting hidden latin, so I will give you an “A+” and ask if I can have some ink anyway.

    — beth    1. January 2004, 13:10    Link
  5. Beth: I was COUNTING on you as a classicist to find some! Yep, ink got bottled this morning; send me your address. (There’s lots and lots, people.)

    — Pica    1. January 2004, 18:01    Link

  6. Fate from the latin Fatum. Otherwise very well done. I enjoyed both the concept of skipping the Latin and the poem itself as delightful.
    Considering how late I have found this I shall not hold you to the promise of ink.

    Thanks,
    Liam UiCearbhaill


    — Liam UiCearbhaill    28. December 2006, 10:23    Link

Previous: Next: