Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Speckled Band

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Welcome once again to my poetry page!

I hope each week you will read Dr. Watson’s delightful narrative and then go on 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.

And here, courtesy of my housemaid Rachel, is this week’s suggested poem to read—a suggestion inspired by the themes and subjects in this week's story. Hopefully you will enjoy the poem, and perhaps it may give you some ideas for a poem of your own or allow you to look at Dr. Watson's story in a new way.


Snake

by Emily Dickinson


Thank you so much to Rachel. And here is my suggested form to revisit this week: the double dactyl. (The link will take you back to a previous poetry page.)


But you do not have to use that form. 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, ballad, 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, Fib, found poetry, ghazal, haiku, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, limerick, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, 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 Speckled Band in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!



Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson

Comments

Re: double dactyl of sorts

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I really like Jiggery pokery, and Calm restoration to/ Non-curvilinear/ Coal-stoking implement. ^_^ There's something very appealing about such a long-winded circumlocution ^^

Re: double dactyl of sorts

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Very clever - lots of lovely long words.

Re: double dactyl of sorts

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! This is such a difficult form. Well done! And I second the kudos for long words. Great to hone in on the poker (and a nice compliment to your 60, pokers on the brain, eh?)

Re: double dactyl of sorts

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Jiggery pokery - lovely. And so is the whole poem.

A double dactyl

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Hissery Hassery,
Indian swamp adder
Rather surprisingly
Climbs up a rope.

Surely this serpent’s a
Pseudo-ophidian.
Ferret in scaly skin..?
Yep, that’s a nope.

RE: A double dactyl

[debriswoman]

Fakery snakery
ACD stretching it;
Ferret like features employed
For surprise
Theory was not very
Herpetological;
May be some scales need to fall
From his eyes.

Re: A double dactyl

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

And before Mr Holmes has ideas of experimenting with snakes of any sort, I should remind him it is not just reptiles which can be hit with a stick.

Re: A double dactyl

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Hee, hee. Wow! I am so impressed. This form had me so stumped. And it does raise the possibility of another animal being in disguise (and fooling a master of disguise! with very little herpetological knowledge)

Re: A double dactyl

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Probably from the same snake-pit that produced the movie star of ANACONDA, and the donkey-eating boa from Swiss Family Robinson.

Re: A double dactyl

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Great idea! Those last three lines...

Dactylic disaster

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Knockerty, knockerty,
Landlady’s properly
Wakening fast asleep
Holmes

Knockerty, knockerty,
Watson sleeps merrily
Dreaming of breakfast with
Toast

Re: Dactylic disaster

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Words absolutely fail me ^^" (^_^)

RE: Dactylic disaster

[debriswoman]

Awwww....I do like the idea of sleeping merrily:-)

Re: Dactylic disaster

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

This is the moment before the havoc is wreaked.

A second dactylic disaster

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Speckledy freckledy
Cold-blooded murderer
Wide opportunity
Narrow escape

Manslaughter carried out
Without prints, evidence
Taking my leave with no
Trace in my wake

RE: A second dactylic disaster

[debriswoman]

Particularly like wide opportunity, narrow escape:-)

Re: A second dactylic disaster

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

It's the safe for you, snaky, and the scales of justice!

Re: A second dactylic disaster

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

At least your 'disaster' has the right number of feet.

I like the snake's attitude, although I shall continue to maintain a safe distance.

Re: A second dactylic disaster

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Nicely sinister verses from the snake. And thanks for givng him his say.

Re: A second dactylic disaster

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Echoing the applause for Wide opportunity/ Narrow escape. And also the literal Cold-blooded murderer - I thought that was very clever.

Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Poor Julie dead, crying “The Band!”
A quick trip to Stoke Moran’s land
Showed a plot of raw greed,
And a serpentine deed
That didn’t end as Roylott planned.

Re: Limerick

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Nice. Like the 'raw greed' and 'serpentine deed' rhyme.

Re: Limerick

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

And no loss whatsoever to the world.

Rachel's poem

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you for including this one. It is one of my favourites. One I know a good deal by heart.

Re: Rachel's poem

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

What a lovely coincidence ^^ I hadn't come across it before myself but I love the imagery in it: The Grass divides as with a comb and a whiplash/ Unbraiding in the Sun/ When, stooping to secure it/ It wrinkled, and was gone— And that last verse truly makes you feel the narrator's reaction.