Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: Charles Augustus Milverton

[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.

Rachel is happily safely back with us now. I must briefly apologise to her—I had been waiting on tenterhooks to see if she would be able to manage to get a poem to me. However, she had in fact given me her submission ahead of time, and I had asked Mr. Holmes to lock it in his drawer for safekeeping.

Whereupon I forgot all about it.

And so, courtesy of my housemaid Rachel and with an updated note, here 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.



The Maldive Shark

By Herman Melville


Note from Rachel: Home again at last! The little pilot fish in this poem remind me of the odious Milverton. Blackmailers may seem to be the small fry of the criminal classes compared to their more directly violent brethren, but Milverton leads the forces of scandal and prejudice to his chosen victims and then stands back to watch them devoured.



Thank you so much to Rachel. And here is also a new poetry form to try: the rhyming alliterisen. (The linked page is headed ‘Alliterisen’. See the bottom of the page for the ‘Rhyming Alliterisen’.)

Shadow Poetry gives this definition:

The Rhyming Alliterisen consists of 7 lines, with 7 syllables each, and has one alliteration in every line. The rhyme scheme as follows: aabbccd.


Here is my example poem (I must admit I did not quite manage alliteration in line 5):


Widows with a bob or two
Draw in Franks, Bills and Toms too.
So to sink a dud courtship
I just use my tenant’s tip.
Viz, the tip he calls a flat:
They take a look and that’s that.
My chaperone—Sherlock Holmes.



But you do not have to use this 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, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, limerick, line messaging, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, 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 Charles Augustus Milverton in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!


Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson

Comments

Re: Watson reflects

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Hee hee. A doctor, not a burglar indeed - Bones and Bilbo would agree.

And I'd never before caught the irony of Watson blackmailing Holmes.

Re: Watson reflects

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I really like this version. And agreed, what Holmes can do without a second thought must give Watson pause.

The same problem will happen to Lestrade - we have a murdered man whose death we must investigate, but we know what he was, so we'll just go through the motions.

Re: Watson reflects

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

A tour de force. I loved every bit, including Watson's blackmail and Lestr-arrr-de, very piratey.

Re: Watson reflects

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

(Slightly worried now. 'Lestrade' and 'yard' do rhyme for me... ^^")

I loved particularly:

Maid is busy planning wedding./ (Hope she hasn't bought the dress.)

Use a quite ironic weapon;/ Touch of blackmail of my own

Having bled so many victims,/ Charles Augustus bleeds the same.

Tumble to the ground, exhausted,/ Holmes, as always, waits for me.

Clerihew

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Charles Augustus Milverton
Died as we watched behind silk curtain
Masked and in silence, we both stared in horror
At a murder that yet left the world no poorer.

Re: Clerihew

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

No loss whatsoever!

Re: Clerihew

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Very true. In fact, some will actually sleep more soundly.

RE: Clerihew

[debriswoman]

Works well, last line particularly ::)

Re: Clerihew

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

It's a depressing thought that he was a man who absolutely no-one would mourn - everyone was relieved he was dead. (As Watson writes in HOUN: Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.)

Re: Almost rhyming alliterisen

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Brilliant summary - puts my poor efforts to shame.

Although I do hope Mrs H will come up with some easier forms soon, and preferably ones I can spell.

Re: Almost rhyming alliterisen

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Very nice. I like 'spider silk spins' and 'dastardly deeds.'

Re: Almost rhyming alliterisen

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

That's wonderfully done. I love that opening couplet especially. And the way the rhythm slows at the end to the abrupt 'Case closed'.

A rhyming alliterisen

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

A strange and suspicious case
In a Hampstead house took place
A man murdered for blackmail
Lestrade came to tell the tale
A print of felon’s footmark
Moustache and mask seen, though dark
But never Holmes and Watson

Re: A rhyming alliterisen

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Very nice. An admirable summing up of the case.

Re: A rhyming alliterisen

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Neatly done ^^ I really like felon’s footmark and Moustache and mask seen.

RE: A rhyming alliterisen

[debriswoman]

Moustache and mask is a particularly wonderful addition:-)

Alliterism

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Rough, rumble, evening ramble,
our sup’s preferred preamble,
an amicable amble,
or game, the get-lost gamble,
down to docks’ briny bramble,
uphill, legs-screaming scramble,
back to Baker Street shamble.

Re: Alliterism

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I really like this description of their walk - especially the last line.

Re: Alliterism

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I love that opening couplet ^^ And also get-lost gamble and briny bramble ^_^

RE: Alliterism

[debriswoman]

This poem tumbles along beautifully:-)

Mrs. Hudson

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

That will do it. I doubt any suitor would pass Holmes's scrutiny, desired or not.

Re: Mrs. Hudson

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

And everyone looks out of the window to watch the potential suitor running away as fast as they can.

The Ballad of the Black Silk Masks

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Because I know erotic poetry is not most's cups of tea on the comm, I am just going to leave a link. I was wondering why Watson has black silk lying around to make masks and also had a BINGO square to fill so...

Title: The Ballad of the Black Silk Masks
Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6540835/chapters/22261223
Rating: Explicit
Length: 507 (20 stanzas + refrain, ballad metre)
Content Notes: Holmes/Watson, restraints, anal sex, POV Holmes.
Summary: Watson seeks to soothe Holmes upon return to Baker Street after CAM's murder.

Re: The Ballad of the Black Silk Masks

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your thoughtfulness and discretion, dear.

(Though having known Mrs. Turner for some years now, there is very little left that can shock me.)

Rachel's poem

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Brilliant metaphor for CAM. Love it!

Re: Rachel's poem

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I really like this one myself ^^