sherlock60 | Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Musgrave Ritual

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, are this week’s suggested poems to read—suggestions inspired by the themes and subjects in this week's story. Hopefully you will enjoy the poems, and perhaps they 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.

All that is gold does not glitter

by J.R.R. Tolkien

Note from Rachel: This one is for the treasure hunt itself, of course. Although unfortunately I think the metaphorical blade that is reforged there at the end is Rachel Howell’s hatred.

Helas

by Oscar Wilde

Note from Rachel: My thinking on this poem is that it has something to say about Brunton, a man of tremendous intelligence whose potential was never allowed to fully develop, in part because of his unjust and underprivileged social position, but also in part because his fickle approach to his lover proved disastrous. The poet compares himself to a scroll which contains a secret but which has been so carelessly and confusingly overwritten that its original meaning and worth is lost – an analogy which ties Brunton and the Musgrave Ritual together.

Thank you so much to Rachel. And here is my suggested form to revisit this week: the triolet. (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 Musgrave Ritual in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!

Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A hunt for lost treasure is told:
Trig and death, and an old crown of gold.
And as Watson hears
Of Holmes’ earlier years,
How he treasures the tales that unfold!

Nice play with 'treasure' and I like that trigonometry got a mention.

Definitely worth the loss of a chance to tidy the lodgings.

I love the last line ^_^ And I don't think you often find trigonometry and death linked together in the same phrase...

Talk to any maths student during Finals Week and you'll see a link between trigonometry and death.

Nicely done:-)

Thank you.

One wonders if there were other tales which were never published.

There was that aluminium crutch one. (At the time Holmes took that case, aluminium was as costly as platinum because it was so expensive to extract until the 1890s - it would be like someone with a solid-gold crutch.)

Mr. Holmes made the sign of V and R
With patriotic bullet-pocks.
This time he’s really gone too far:
Mr. Holmes made the sign of V and R.
Mrs. Hudson’s V: fingers raised, ajar.
Unexpected from someone who wears frocks.
But… Mr. Holmes made the sign of V and R
With patriotic bullet-pocks.

Very neat use of the form:-)

Thank you ^_^

Clearly the mod mind was running along the same tracks. I think yours would fit neatly after mine.

We really have been spending far too much time together ^^"

Very nice use of the form! I'm sure that Holmes' habits provoke all kinds of unladylike gestures in Mrs. Hudson.

She manages to suppress them most of the time but sometimes they just break through ^^"

Oh dear, he really HAS gone too far this time, if he's reduced Mrs. Hudson to gesturing like a street urchin.

Mrs. Hudson has obviously picked a few things up from the Irregulars ^^

The wall of 221B has a VR in bullet-pocks
The correspondence is transfixed by a jack-knife
The floor carpet is hidden by Holmes’ costume from the docks
The wall of 221B has a VR in bullet-pocks
The table is covered with mementoes from his box
When Mrs Hudson sees it all there’s sure to be some strife
The wall of 221B has a VR in bullet-pocks
And the correspondence is transfixed by a jack-knife

Very well done. A compliment to Frankles. And I like the title. Holmes: here there be shrieking.

And written entirely separately! Watson was unimpressed with the latest 'improvements' to the wall.

Watson never thought he'd yearn for the days when his medical-school flatmate merely dissected human cadavers in the common room.

Quite - one could at least walk round the cadaver - sometimes it's impossible to cross the floor of 221B without encountering something.

It really is uncanny how well our poems go together. When Mrs Hudson sees it all there’s sure to be some strife...

I know - and you have indeed shown the strife :)

Watson would thank you for expressing his feelings so well. (Mrs Hudson joined in the last, I believe.)

Indeed she did - it became a duet.

Nicely done...clever choice of lines:-)

Thank you very much!

Many thanks to Rachel for those links.

My pleasure! So glad you enjoyed them :)

Agreed...cleverly chosen.

Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Musgrave Ritual

Limerick

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A triolet

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A Triolet - Watson's voice rises at each repeat

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