[Svein Olav Nyberg]

Maybe not mastery of poetry as such, but surely a mastery of word play. I found this line-unit palindrome poem at http://www.fun-with-words.com/palin_...lindromes.html

Doppelgänger

Entering the lonely house with my wife
I saw him for the first time
Peering furtively from behind a bush –
Blackness that moved,
A shape amid the shadows,
A momentary glimpse of gleaming eyes
Revealed in the ragged moon.
A closer look (he seemed to turn) might have
Put him to flight forever –
I dared not
(For reasons that I failed to understand),
Though I knew I should act at once.

I puzzled over it, hiding alone,
Watching the woman as she neared the gate.
He came, and I saw him crouching
Night after night.
Night after night
He came, and I saw him crouching,
Watching the woman as she neared the gate.

I puzzled over it, hiding alone –
Though I knew I should act at once,
For reasons that I failed to understand
I dared not
Put him to flight forever.

A closer look (he seemed to turn) might have
Revealed in the ragged moon
A momentary glimpse of gleaming eyes
A shape amid the shadows,
Blackness that moved.

Peering furtively from behind a bush,
I saw him, for the first time
Entering the lonely house with my wife.

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Svein Olav (The poet formerly known as Solan )

[Svein Olav Nyberg]

B...r, I can't spell! Could a kind moderator correct the spelling of the thread title?

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Svein Olav (The poet formerly known as Solan )

[Janet Kenny]

Or they could leave it dromant.

Svein, that poem is truly surreal. Like a Mobius strip.
Janet

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited June 24, 2005).]

[Svein Olav Nyberg]

I worte a sci-fi story on a Möbius strip once, back in my sci-fi "fandom" days, to make a truly 5-page fanzine. I was also strongly committed to Vogon poetry, and had - according to friends - an unfortunate knack for it.

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Svein Olav (The poet formerly known as Solan )

[Anthony Lombardy]

Your musings are interesting, as always, Svein. As I'm sure you know, oral poets often compose sections of narrative or description in hysteron-proteron order (ring composition), and the palindrome is an instance of that in which the elements not only correspond to one another in some abstract way, but actually are the same. Some scholars think that oral poets did this in order to give rhetorical prominence to the central element, but I have never thought that a plausible explanation. The introductory and concluding elements often mirror each other simply because of the way in which they are connecting the passage to the rest of the narrative. Such compositions often have a sense of unity that is satisfying, even when the reader does not notice the correspondences which organize the passage.

Thanks for posting this!

Tony

[Henry Quince]

Svein,

"peterjb" here has written some palindromic poems. Since they are on his website I will link to one, an ekphrastic on M. E. Escher’s Day and Night (word unit, with the title as part of the palindrome), and copy one below (word unit, per line).

If I Had a Hifi

Signa te, signa, temere me tangis et angis

Tulsa nightlife: filth, gin, a slut
bombard a drab mob.
Star comedy by Democrats:
age, irony, Noriega.

Ein Neger mit Gazelle zagt im Regen nie.
Yawn a more Roman way.
Embargo? No, no, grab me
and detartrated DNA!

“Naomi, sex at noon taxes,” I moan.
“Pull up if I pull up!”
Niagara, O roar again:
poor Dan is in a droop.

Lisa Bonet ate no basil,
lived on decaf, faced no devil.
Mr Owl ate my metal worm.
Yo, banana boy!

Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas;
drat Saddam — mad dastard.
A Santa lived as a devil at NASA.
Ah, ailihphilia! Ha!

[Gregory Dowling]

On the subject of palindromes, Stephen Fry once organised a competition for new ones and was tempted to offer the prize to this one:
"Rettebs, I flah noces, eh? Htu, but the second half is better."

[Susan McLean]

Gregory, that one really cracked me up. Sometimes breaking all the rules is more amusing than following them.

Susan

[Jim Hayes]

Hereunder my attempt in the genre;

The Patron Saint of Repeating Yourself

I have this most repetitive complaint;
my doctor couldn’t diagnose what ailed,
I told myself there is a patron saint
to pray to—everyone I tried has failed.
I found ten thousand saints with a speciality
listed under topic-group-disease
(Authenticated by the Papacy)
I tried the saints who offered guarantees—
the flagellants, the hermits and the martyrs.
I liked a saint who had attended to
a horrid malady, although for starters
I settled for the patron saint of flu.
Among the saints of whom I’ve lately read
there’s no saint for repeating what you’ve said.

There’s no saint for repeating what you’ve said
among the saints of whom I’ve lately read.
I settled for the patron saint of flu,
a horrid malady, although for starters
I liked a saint who had attended to
the flagellants, the hermits and the martyrs.
I tried the saints who offered guarantees
(Authenticated by the papacy)
listed under topic-group-disease.
I found ten thousand saints with a speciality
to pray to—everyone I tried has failed.
I told myself there is a patron saint,
my doctor couldn’t diagnose what ailed—
I have this most repetitive complaint.

Jim

[EREME]

Jim, that brought all sorts of things flooding back - was this not originally The Patron Saint of Standing on Your Head? The one in which you had this most unusual complaint - in fact the very devil's own complaint?
I so enjoyed seeing it evolve, and now I see it in a totally new guise. Hard to decide which I prefer, they're both quite splendid!
Joan