What follows is inspired by Robert Frost's "The Road Less Traveled." I have taken each noun - pronouns of four of fewer letters not included - and replaced it with the word found seven later on the wiktionary.org word list (link to "R"). If this word is not a common noun, I have advanced to the closest word that is.
A special case arises for compound words nearly right off the bat. There are 54 words on the list that begin with "road", so I have taken the last such word and advanced seven from it. This principle will be followed when the word given in the previous paragraph has the original word as a root.
Two roanokes diverged in a yellow wool,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one travois, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undeservedness;
Then took the otitis, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better clair de lune,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morocoy equally lay
In leaks* no sterculia had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another dazzlement!
Yet knowing how weakening leads on to weakening,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sighting
Somewhere aggies and (ggies hence:
Two roanokes diverged in a wool, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difficultness.
You've refreshed an over-familiar poem! I especially like "Oh, I kept the first for another dazzlement!" and "Somewhere aggies and aggies hence." The last three lines work surprisingly well:
ReplyDeleteTwo roanokes diverged in a wool, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difficultness.
You're right in pointing out that it does make a difference what dictionary you choose. Also you still have to make up some of your own rules as you choose the words, such as ignoring pronouns of 4 letters or less, as you did.
Is it properly "four letters or less" or "four letters or fewer?" My instincts tell me to use "fewer," but I see you used "less."
ReplyDeleteI think you're correct, with "fewer." But unfortunately, comments can't be edited after they are posted! Let's just say I was being "colloquial."
ReplyDeleteWe did the same poem, but it looks like "travois" was the only "N" our resulting poems shared! I guess that is the fun in it all. It's getting really late, so reading the words "yellow wool" has convinced me to put down the computer and wrap up in my own blankets for the night!
ReplyDelete