Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Reigate Squires

[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.


Happiness

by Susan Griffin

Note from Rachel: Mr. Holmes’s health is failing in this story, and Dr. Watson convinces him to recuperate in the country. This poem might be Mr. Holmes’s inward reflections as he haltingly attempts to appreciate nature and quiet companionship for once, while battling an extreme acuity of perception that is almost painful. I see the internal commentary, set aside in parentheses, as perhaps Dr. Watson’s side of the conversation as he tries to understand what has led to his friend’s collapse. It is ultimately a confused, wandering, but hopeful poem about a sensitive and driven person trying to let themselves be happy.



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



Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson

Comments

Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Poor Holmes is laid low, ill, in France.
He comes home to rest – where, by chance,
A case over lands
And a note in two hands
Is his rest-cure. He’s back in the dance!

Re: Limerick

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yeah, not much rest and country air for our ailing hero.

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

For some people a change is as good as a rest.

Re: Limerick

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

That's a nice (and useful) line. I may have to quote you on it sometime.

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

I think it's an old English saying.

Re: Limerick

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Not one for lying around when there are exciting murders to be investigated.

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

I think the English are the origin of the saying "A change is as good as a rest."

Re: Limerick

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I like lines 3 & 4 ^^ And He’s back in the dance! makes me smile so much ^_^

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

And frisking ahead to the next case waiting at 221b for them...while Watson walks 5 paces behind, facepalming.

Re: Limerick

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Bravo! Neatly footed, too, gardnerhill.

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much!

RE: Limerick

[debriswoman]

Neatly done:-)

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Merci beaucoup!

an all kinds of awful attempt at rime couee

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Your stubbornness approaches lunacy
Demands my subtlest diplomacy
You need not be so rude and adamant
No damsels shall disturb you
Impede, misread, or curb you
At Colonel’s bachelor establishment

Re: an all kinds of awful attempt at rime couee

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I do like Watson's thoughts on the matter.

Re: an all kinds of awful attempt at rime couee

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

As always, thoroughly impressed by your vocabulary and your choice of rhymes ^^" Particularly fond of lines 4 & 5 ^_^

RE: Re: an all kinds of awful attempt at rime couee

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm not so happy with it, but it's something and last week I didn't manage anything. My favorite bit of the story is the 'diplomacy' line.

Re: an all kinds of awful attempt at rime couee

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a jingle for a Victorian B&B - "Come on down!"

Re: an all kinds of awful attempt at rime couee

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Hee, hee. If the Colonel falls on hard times, maybe he can use it in advertising.

Re: an all kinds of awful attempt at rime couee

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

A very enjoyable success at rime couee. I do love the fourth and fifth lines!

Re: an all kinds of awful attempt at rime couee

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! It was like pulling teeth this week, but I managed something.

RE: an all kinds of awful attempt at rime couee

[debriswoman]

Really well done re word choice:-)

Re: an all kinds of awful attempt at rime couee

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Aw. Thank you. Coming from you that means a lot. I feel like my brain is scrambled eggs these days so it's a bit wonky, but I wanted to make a showing for the week.

RE: Re: an all kinds of awful attempt at rime couee

[debriswoman]

All the very best with unscrambling brain, this works very well regardless:-)

Rime couée

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Mr Holmes knocks over a pile of fruit
By kicking the table with his boot
The Doctor takes the blame
The detective is nearly strangled
The handwritten note is nicely mangled
Cunningham’s in the frame

Re: Rime couée

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Once again, we've thought on vaguely similar lines ^^"

I do like the rhymes "strangled/mangled" ^_^

Re: Rime couée

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Two mods with but a single thought ;)

Thank you - they pleased me too.

RE: Rime couée

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Very nice painting of the last scenes of the case.

Re: Rime couée

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!

Re: Rime couée

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

And the sestets emphasize the two people wrongly accused in the story!

Re: Rime couée

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Indeed!

RE: Rime couée

[debriswoman]

Works very well:-)

Re: Rime couée

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

A rime couée

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Why must it always be the same?
Dr. John Watson takes the blame
For an orange cascade.
Still: two arrests - squire’s and coxcomb’s.
When life gives you Mr. S. Holmes,
Make orangeade.

RE: A rime couée

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Very nice. I like the part about the orangeade. Watson probably makes a lot of that.

Re: A rime couée

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I was very pleased with the orangeade joke ^_^

And yes, I would imagine Watson is forever manning the orange squeezer ^^"

Re: A rime couée

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

A very sensible outlook of the doctor's.

It's a good job there's no rhyme for 'orange' or we'd both have probably written the same thing.

Re: A rime couée

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

It's a good job there's no rhyme for 'orange' or we'd both have probably written the same thing.

An excellent point ^^"

Re: A rime couée

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Delightful revenge. I can see Watson conferring with Mrs. Hudson - who brings Holmes orange marmalade for breakfast, orangeade at lunchtime, duck a l'orange for supper...until Holmes finally cracks and apologises.

Re: A rime couée

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Yes, with all those oranges, Holmes eventually gets the pip...

Re: A rime couée

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Poor Mr. Oppenshaw's appearance is the frozen limit - Holmes thinks this orange-pips thing is an elaborate prank by Watson on the same theme, and throws the bewildered client back out into the rain.

Re: A rime couée

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

What an excellent last line! Indeed, every line is, and the whole poem is most neat and enjoyable.

Re: A rime couée

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much ^_^

RE: A rime couée

[debriswoman]

Wise words:-)

Re: A rime couée

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I thought so :P

Rachel's poem

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

I love the line "I am thinking that in your fall something momentous occurred." Which taken in Holmesian context takes on a whole other meaning.

Re: Rachel's poem

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

It does indeed.

I find it such a moving poem, though I'm not sure I've grasped its full meaning.

Re: Rachel's poem

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I liked the way the subject floated around, a bit like Holmes' thoughts in those situations.