Jayne,

Your poem is terrific. I'm wondering, though, why you have 4 tetrameter lines in S1, when the other stanzas are 4343. In S4L3 "barrage" is given an unnatural accent on the first syllable.

Perhaps Myrtle should have looked for another blind man outside of the surgeon's region. ;)

It's great that you read this at a hospice! It's a fun piece and I enjoyed it, too.

Martin

Hi, Martin! The US pronunciation puts the accent on the final syllable, buh-RAHJ, but remember that the Brits can't stand French pronunciations; which is why, for example, what you and I quite reasonably call a buf-FAY seems to be BUFF-et over yonder.

I had a feeling that might be the case, Julie. But I thought I'd mention it, just in case! ;)

We Brits, Julie, like French pronunciation fine when we are speaking French, but like the French when they are borrowing English words (e.g. marketing, taxi) we like to naturalise them, as it were. The thing in the sky is a Barrij balloon, and the house for my car is a garrij. I have to admit that the Scots say them as you do. Must be something to do with the Auld Alliance.

Actually, I only put
so a barrage of menacing letters was sent
when I posted it here. For some reason I sent it off with
so hundreds of menacing letters were sent
which may be better but I'm not sure.

I say bar-rahj and gar-rahj, John, which is posher than bar-rij and gar-rij!

gosh
 

Barrage balloons! They were magical objects to me, on trips to London during WW2, floating in the sky. And I recall an NS (I think) comp yonks ago, which called for compers to submit little-known facts, or the like. One of mine (& I believe it was printed) was that barrage balloons were not so much tethered blimps as suspended cables. I don't know how effective they were in bringing down – or repelling – German aircraft.

Off to google that.

Blimey, there's a whole history there. And Jerry planes had cable-cutters. Too much, man.

Are you sure it's posher Jayne? Are you absolutely sure?

I've got Rollers in both garages.
I always lunch at Claridges
In jodhpurs and galoshes,
So I think I know what posh is.

All before my time, Bazza, but interesting stuff nonetheless.

I can't help a little smile about all this, since Martin first mentioned 'barrage', which isn't even in my poem any more! I think I'm glad that I changed it before submitting it.

And there ain't any argument about how to say 'hundreds...!'

*Cross-posted with you, John. Oh, I'm quite sure 'garages' doesn't rhyme with 'Claridges'!

It does, Jayne. Aye, it does.
Joan

I'm SO happy to hear that it's not only Yanks who have trouble with Brit pronunciations.