Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Problem of Thor Bridge

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Welcome once again to my poetry page!

I hope each week you will read Dr. Watson’s delightful narrative and then be inspired to write a poem related to it in some way. All forms of poetry are permitted, and further down the page there is a selection you might like to consider using over the coming weeks.

This week my featured form is the triangular triplet.

www.answers.com gives this definition:

A triangular triplet is a triplet, meaning it has to have 3 lines that rhyme. The catch is it has to make sense reading the lines in any order.

You should strictly speaking place the three lines together in the form of a triangle, but that is rather beyond the capabilities of my typewriter and would be difficult to accomplish in the comments. So stacking the lines one upon another in the usual manner is perfectly acceptable.



Here is my example poem, dedicated to my late, lamented pet:


My small terrier is on guard
Can you count four feet? (it’s not hard)
Out there in a Baker Street yard



And here are the other ways of reading it:

My small terrier is on guard
Out there in a Baker Street yard
Can you count four feet? (it’s not hard)

Can you count four feet? (it’s not hard)
My small terrier is on guard
Out there in a Baker Street yard

Can you count four feet? (it’s not hard)
Out there in a Baker Street yard
My small terrier is on guard

Out there in a Baker Street yard
My small terrier is on guard
Can you count four feet? (it’s not hard)

Out there in a Baker Street yard
Can you count four feet? (it’s not hard)
My small terrier is on guard



I am hoping you might be able to find a few plays on words—the number of feet in each line (and on a dog), the fact that ‘yard’ has more than one meaning, and the fact that in a baker’s dozen there is always one more than usual...



As always, this is simply something to consider for the future. Any form of poetry is welcome this week—and every week! Here are a few suggestions for you:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, beeswing, blackout poetry, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, epigram, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, found poetry, ghazal, haiku, Italian sonnet, kennings poem, lanturne, limerick, lyric poetry, mathnawī, palindrome poetry, pantoum, poem cycle, quintilla, renga, riddle, rime couée, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, sonnet, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, triolet, tyburn, villanelle


Please leave all your poems inspired by The Problem of Thor Bridge in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!


Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson

Comments

Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

She’s white and she’s pretty – ‘nuff said.
His scorned older wife turns up dead:
Her revenge set to frame
That poor girl for the same.
(If only she’d shot HIM instead.)

Re: Limerick

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Would have been better for all, although if she wanted to make him suffer this was a good plan.

Cautionary Tales

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

The cutter Alicia
Sailed into the mist
She never came out
At least that is the gist

Mr James Phillimore
Returned for his brolly
He vanished from sight
Which is rather melancholy

Isadora Pesano
Opened a matchbox
The contents he found
Were worse than the pox

Re: Cautionary Tales

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Well done. It is amazing how he interests the reader so with only a few words about each case.

Re: Limerick

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

It's a case of a woman's anger turned everywhere but the one place that is the direct cause of her suffering. It seems a tragedy that she couldn't find another object for her passion. Her children, maybe? Or a hobby. Even another lover might have tempered her 'nature.'

Re: Cautionary Tales

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I know - and we're left wishing for the rest of the tale.

A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Fresh beauty is alluring
Middle-aged looks become boring
Miss Dunbar he’s adoring

Fresh beauty is alluring
Miss Dunbar he’s adoring
Middle-aged looks become boring

Middle-aged looks become boring
Fresh beauty is alluring
Miss Dunbar he’s adoring

Middle-aged looks become boring
Miss Dunbar he’s adoring
Fresh beauty is alluring

Miss Dunbar he’s adoring
Fresh beauty is alluring
Middle-aged looks become boring

Miss Dunbar he’s adoring
Middle-aged looks become boring
Fresh beauty is alluring

Re: A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Nicely done, and it highlights the double standard. I wonder what Mrs. Gibson would say about Mr. Gibson's looks after so many years of marriage. Did she think that his Abraham-Lincoln-keyed-to-bases-uses was boring?

Re: Limerick

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Despite Gibson being a thug, on the whole I'd rather no-one had got shot ^^"

It's poignant in a way that Gibson refers to "killing" his wife's love - that's what really needed to die to save Mrs. Gibson. Then perhaps she could have found some happiness and would have been able to stand up to her husband. (For a start telling Gibson that if he wanted to chastely court governesses he could do it elsewhere, and insist Miss Dunbar left the house.)

Re: Cautionary Tales

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I echo okapi's comment about ACD's talent for coming up with fascinating cases in just a few words. What an imagination that man had.

And I love the solemn-faced humour of your verses ^^ I'm particularly keen on the Phillimore one ^_^ Brolly/melancholy is such a wonderful rhyme ^^ And the overarching theme of the verses is an excellent choice too - great title.

Re: Limerick

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Right on! Thanks for this good verse and good idea.

Re: A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I suppose to be fair to Gibson, he isn't just saying, "She got old and I lost interest." It seems to be the case that he mistook his youthful passion for her looks as an interest in her, and once the sexual aspect of their marriage began to fade, he realised that they didn't really have anything in common as companions.

Sexual attraction, biology and love are always mixed up together I suppose. In my own family, my father got married in his early 40s, but he didn't marry a woman in her early 40s - my mother was in her early 30s. My grandfather got married in his mid-40s and married a woman in her late 20s. Because consciously or unconsciously they were looking for someone to have children with. But I don't doubt for an instant that my parents and grandparents loved each other. Sexual attraction is only the beginning - it's building a relationship that makes a lasting marriage.

It has to be said, looking through Watson's eyes, Gibson doesn't seem terribly physically attractive. But I suppose Mrs. Gibson didn't see him that way - she was aware he'd got older too but she didn't care because she loved him, and her love for him wasn't tied up in his biology.

Re: Cautionary Tales

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you. They felt as if they should belong in a Nursery Anthology somewhere.

Re: A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

There are some men who look entirely for what they can get out of a relationship and see nothing of what they can contribute.

Re: A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

That really does sum Gibson up unfortunately. I'm hopeful that Miss Gibson might be more able to stand up to him than his unfortunate first wife, but I'm not convinced it's going to be a happy marriage.

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Seems to have worked. But tragically it seems that the wrong party is always blamed when a man cheats - SHE'S called a homewrecker, he's just Doing What Men Do.

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Leave him for a half-year to go to Egypt with a group of tourists.

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

I'm more bloodthirsty, especially when it comes to men getting away with bad behavior toward women (or in this case, being actively rewarded for it).

Poor Mrs. Gibson really needed a break - maybe have Violet Smith roar up on her new motorcycle (http://sherlock60.livejournal.com/522346.html) and ask her to accompany her on a motoring tour of Europe, and have nothing to do with men of any kind until they sort their respective traumas out.

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Heh heh. Yeah, let's "fix" Thor Bridge by shooting the real cuplrit! Wouldn't be the first SH story where the victim pretty much needed to be killed.

Re: Cautionary Tales

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

No less than two of those stories mentioned in THOR are alluded to in BBC's Sherlock - in the first episode, we see a young man go back for his umbrella, and he winds up one of the victims. In a later episode we see Sherlock look into the matchbox left behind, and is flooded with light from it.

Re: Cautionary Tales

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I think my versions are better though ;)

Not 100% sure this worked....

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

In the chamber it revolved.
Blasting forth, a soul devolved.
As a woman’s life dissolved.

Blasting forth, a soul devolved.
In the chamber it revolved.
As a woman’s life dissolved.

Blasting forth, a soul devolved.
As a woman’s life dissolved.
In the chamber it revolved.

In the chamber it revolved.
As a woman’s life dissolved.
Blasting forth, a soul devolved.

As a woman’s life dissolved.
In the chamber it revolved.
Blasting forth, a soul devolved.

Re: A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... do we have an inkling of whether Miss Dunbar found middle aged looks boring as well?

Re: Cautionary Tales

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Certainly more rhythmic.

Re: Not 100% sure this worked....

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

An excellent insight - I'd say it worked.

RE: Limerick

[debriswoman]

One can only hope that Miss Dunbar leaves.
Neatly done.

RE: Cautionary Tales

[debriswoman]

A droll take on the unwritten tales:-)

RE: A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[debriswoman]

Miss Dunbar would be wise to employ a governess older than her if she weds Mr Gibson.
Nicely done.

RE: Not 100% sure this worked....

[debriswoman]

Such a sad solution...I think this works well.

Re: Cautionary Tales

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much.

Re: A triangular triplet: disappearance

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Quite - no-one seemed at all concerned for them.

Re: Written earlier...

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

That is very clever - I do like your take on all the different (and differing) viewpoints.

RE: Re: Written earlier...

[debriswoman]

Thank you very much:-)

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Don't touch a penny of his stuff - just take her governesses' wages and get the hell out of Dodge.

Re: Not 100% sure this worked....

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was all aflutter about the use of 'devolved'

Re: Not 100% sure this worked....

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

Many thanks! This means a great deal coming from you.

Re: A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing Miss Dunbar was impressed by Gibson's power - and she had got rather caught up in the idea of herself as the noble woman changing Gibson and the world for the better.

Re: A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I think so ^^" And thank you ^^

Re: Not 100% sure this worked....

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I like that a lot ^^" I love your choice of rhyming words and the imagery. The poem really seems to capture that awful moment when the gun was fired.

Re: A triangular triplet: disappearance

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Great subject to choose. I really like: Two children, penned in passing, disappear. The children really are just a plot point in the story - there have to be children in order to have a governess in the house. But we're told nothing at all about them.

Re: Written earlier...

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Just been looking up the rules for the audl gywydd. (That's a tricky one to track down I can tell you ^^") All I can say is crikey, and very well done. Your poem works so well.

RE: Re: A triangular triplet: disappearance

[debriswoman]

Not at all...quite sad really

RE: Re: A triangular triplet: disappearance

[debriswoman]

Thank you...as you say, plot devices...as governessed children seem to be in canon.

RE: Re: Written earlier...

[debriswoman]

Thank you
There are some interesting verse patterns out there:-)

Re: A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

Agreed...and I ought to have read okapi's comment more carefully as it was essentially the same.

Re: Not 100% sure this worked....

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was going for that...

Re: A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Actually, I thought your points were quite different ^^ It was interesting contrasting how Mrs. Gibson and Miss Dunbar viewed Gibson.

Re: A triangular triplet (showing all possible orders - I think 1&6 are most pertinent...)

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

How kind of you! I do see that now.