Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Sussex Vampire

[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 Oil, Snake Bite

By Dilruba Ahmed



Thank you so much to Rachel. And I thought we could also have a go at a new poetry form: nonsense verse.

Wikipedia gives this definition:

Nonsense verse is a form of nonsense literature usually employing strong prosodic elements like rhythm and rhyme. It is whimsical and humorous in tone… In some cases, the humor of nonsense verse is based on the incompatibility of phrases which make grammatical sense but semantic nonsense at least in certain interpretations, as in the traditional:

'I see' said the blind man to his deaf and dumb daughter
as he picked up his hammer and saw.

Other nonsense verse makes use of nonsense words—words without a clear meaning or any meaning at all… Other nonsense verse uses muddled or ambiguous grammar as well as invented words… Some simply illustrate nonsensical situations… Some nonsense verse simply presents contradictory or impossible scenarios in a matter-of-fact tone...


Here is my example:


I've painted Mr. Holmes all red.
A good detective should be bright.
And now I'll wash my clothes in gin.
It's sure to leave my corsets tight.



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, 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, echo verse, 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, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rime couée, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle


Please leave all your poems inspired by The Sussex Vampire in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!


Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson

Comments

Clerihew

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Big Bob Ferguson
Feared for his younger son
But don’t seek the shadows for demons that feed
Jealous siblings provide all the monsters you need

Re: Clerihew

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Too quick to judge between a loving wife and a spoilt son.

Re: Clerihew

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Clients misjudging their awful offspring is definitely in the coronet of Holmes' cases.

RE: Clerihew

[debriswoman]

Liked the last 2 lines very much:-)

Re: Clerihew

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

As Canon (and Scooby-Doo) proves over and over, there's no supernatural threat - monster hounds, vampires, you name it - that can't be explained with pure human evil.

Re: Clerihew

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Echoing the kudos for the last two lines. Nicely crafted.

Re: Clerihew

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

HOUN was the first episode of SCOOBY-DOO - what was first thought to be a monster is just a greedy human preying on superstition.

Re: Clerihew

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Adding to the applause for those last two lines.

Yes, I suppose stories of monsters have always been used as a way of dealing with the evil that human beings do.

Re: Nonsense verse: what befell the circus belle?

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

One day, maybe, you will be able to finish this fascinating tale of Vittoria, and the rat.

Re: Nonsense verse: what befell the circus belle?

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

You've got me hooked! You must tell the tale!

Re: Nonsense verse: what befell the circus belle?

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

She cannot share the where, or how,
Or when, or why, or who did what
Although she longs to, quite a lot. ^_______^

The whole thing's just wonderful ^__^ *applauds wildly*

Re: Nonsense verse: what befell the circus belle?

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

This would make a fabulous children's picture book!

Nonsense verse

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Victor Lynch the forger
Got ink on his fingers
And painted his toe
Nails bright blue
Vittoria the circus belle
Swung from a trapeze
Slipped from the high wire
And landed on an
Elephant
Vogir the Hammersmith wonder
Astounded his followers
But then was eaten
By a very small bee
Ocelot, educated Ocelot
Sloth, meticulous Sloth
Mouselet, dreamy Mouselet
Fer-RET!

RE: Nonsense verse

[debriswoman]

Made no sense at all...well done!
(Would you like to have a nice lie down, now?)

Re: Nonsense verse

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think you complied with the forms requisites. And I'm glad we got clarification of how to pronounce Ferret. In this comm, you never know with pronunciation....

Re: Nonsense verse

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Vogir the Hammersmith wonder
Astounded his followers
But then was eaten
By a very small bee

I shall henceforth quote this whenever you mention my mind ^__^

Mrs. Hudson's poem

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Very nice. Love the pun with the gin and the corset. I think that's worth a ficlet of its own.

RE: Mrs. Hudson's poem

[debriswoman]

Lovely, Mrs H:-)
How did you get Mr Holmes to stay still, btw?

Nonesense poem (we have A LOT of Dr. Seuss at my house; this is a parody of The Shape of Me)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

The shape of Watson
The shape of Holmes
The shape of befouled catacombs
A ship
A secret
A stare
A sight
of blood when vampires first do bite.
Just think about the shape of creams,
Devonshire,
clotted,
and devoted maids’ screams.
Just think about the shape of clues
and from-afar suitors singing the blues.
The shape of gals
just being pals.
The shape of bodies in canals.
And the shapes of spaniels
the shapes of guns
the shape of a blow dart when it stuns
And the shape of rugger
And his woes
And when he worries,
his Big Bob grows!
Suppose Holmes was shaped like this
or that
or shaped like snog
or a Sumatran rat!
Of all the shapes he might have been
Watson says, ‘Oh, dear!’ for the shape he’s in!

Re: Nonesense poem (we have A LOT of Dr. Seuss at my house; this is a parody of The Shape of Me)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Excellent - a truly Holmesian Shape.

Re: Nonesense poem (we have A LOT of Dr. Seuss at my house; this is a parody of The Shape of Me)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's just perfect ^__^

Particularly liked:

The shape of Watson/The shape of Holmes/The shape of befouled catacombs

The shape of gals/just being pals

And the shape of rugger/And his woes/And when he worries,/his Big Bob grows!

^_______^

RE: Nonesense poem (we have A LOT of Dr. Seuss at my house; this is a parody of The Shape of Me)

[debriswoman]

This is wonderful:-)
So many Holmesian shapes:-)

Rachel's poem

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Certain injuries seem to invite unusual treatment more than others. Snake bite, I think, is one of those phenomenon. I do like the idea that they saved the boy from sudden death and now he's just dying slowly (like the majority of folks).

RE: Rachel's poem

[debriswoman]

Agreed, striking images.