Thanks for taking the trouble, Matt.
Happy to lose the ellipses.
I can't say that the limping metre was planned, but when it came out that way I quite liked it. I think the questions that Max and Jim asked about whether light verse can carry this kind of subject matter would be even more pointed if I properly regularised all the metre and rhymes. I wanted enough of those things in there to get a sense of an old toy, now broken, a halting musical box thing.
Yes by "epiparasitic" I meant "ectoparasitic" and even that should probably refer to Tipper himself as an ectoparasite on his "owner's" skin rather than a creature that itself is plagued by them. But again, I was playing with a slightly silly internal rhyme with arthritic. It's not a word most of us use very much and I think the sense I'm after is fairly clear. Will change to "ectoparasitic"
I have also uncapitalised “But”
Thanks again for your sharp eyes and ears.
Joe
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