nursery sonnet

[Catherine Edmunds]

down leafy ways and winding plays on words
he dashed to find the rhyme that time forgot.
without it, he would find one day that curds
and whey feed mistress muffet, but do not
sustain a tuffet, soft and pliant; still
a bitter pill of ills, not sugar sweet
but putrefied, as jack went up the hill
to find his jill. but would they ever meet?
if humpty dumpty had his way, some day
sweet jill would be his own, and he would find
that he could plunder, tear asunder, play
with jack's fey darling. ha! he wouldn't mind.
but nursery rhymes are not allowed to be
as cruel as you have ever been to me.

[Louis P. Burns aka Lugh]

down leafy ways and winding plays on words
he dashed to find the rhyme that time forgot.
without it, he would find one day that curds
and whey feed mistress muffet, but do not
sustain a tuffet, soft and pliant; still
a bitter pill of ills, not sugar sweet
but putrefied, as jack went up the hill
to find his jill. but would they ever meet?
if humpty dumpty had his way, some day
sweet jill would be his own, and he would find
that he could plunder, tear asunder, play
with jack's fey darling. ha! he wouldn't mind.
but nursery rhymes are not allowed to be
as cruel as you have ever been to me.

Hi Delph

I've been listening to the audio book version of Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce a lot recently and without sounding like a smartarse, this is up there, on a par with it. I love the rhythms and interlacings of this piece and have a feeling I will be reading it, a whole lot more in the days and weeks to come...

Excellent. Powerful stuff indeed mate

[Sergi the snail]

I dont fully understand this poem but I really really like the SOUND of it, the words all blend into one and i have read it a few times very quickly and it is like an intense dreamlike sequence

very good use of words Delph wish i had your command of the englisg language

[Catherine Edmunds]

Yippee!! Thanks Lugh. I am deeply honoured and flattered by the comparison.

And thanks, Sergi. Pleased you enjoyed the poem. You probably have to have a grounding in English nursery rhymes, iambic pentameter, and goodness knows what else to 'get' it, which makes me glad English is my first language as I would HATE to have to learn it and get my head round all that stuff.