To lure thy half-wit (Having all, it moves nor\u27-nor\u27-nor\u27 line) Thy piety tears a writ -- A wash-out -- Writes moving word CANCEL on The back of it, And shall Finger all

Gardner, Martin

Lindon, J. A.

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P I E D  P O E T R Y  MARTIN GARDNER Hastings-on- Hudson, New York J. A. LINDON Weybridge , S u r r e y ,  England To l u r e  thy half-wit ( Having a l l ,  i t  moves  nor1  -nor -no r1  l i ne )  Thy piety t e a r s  a writ  - -  A wash-out -- Wri tes  moving word CANCEL on The back of i t ,  And shall  Finger  all ! Modern poe t ry  is  - mos t  confusing, I '  said  Al ice  he  si tantly.  " How can piety t e a r  a w r i t ?  And why should a half- wit be l u r e d  by the moving word  cance l?  I t  s e e m s  l ike  a ve ry  o rd ina ry  word  to me ! " Poor  AIice ! Even  p r o f e s s o r s  of Engl ish  and l i t e r a r y  c r i t i c s  would have difficulty ex- plaining th i s  f ragment .  As  one s t r a in s  t o  ca tch  some  sl ight  semblance of meaning behind the  w o r d s ,  one i s  overcome by the  s a m e  disor iented feel ing that  one h a s  when looking out the window of a gently banking a i r -  plane - -  what h a s  happened to  the hor izon?  I s  t h e r e  no longer  a fixed point of r e f e r e n c e ,  a unifying t heme?  And yet . . . and yet  . . . t he r e  i s  something oddly familiar about t he se  words .  Look -- i t  contains the  words  moving,  f inger and w r i t e s ,  which s u r e l y  sounds fami l ia r .  And, yes  - -  t h e r e  i s  p ie ty  nor  wi t ,  and t e a r s  wash  out a word.  I t i  s nothing but a s c r amb led  v e r s i o n  of Edward " Fi t zge ra ld l  s famous  quatra in  f r o m  Omar  Khayyam: The  Moving Finger  w r i t e s ;  and ,  having w r i t ,  Moves o n ;  no r  a l l  thy P ie ty  nor  Wit Shall l u r e  i t  back to  cance l  half  a L ine ,  Nor a l l  thy T e a r s  wash out a Word of i t .  But why? Why go to great  lengths  to t r a n s l a t e  hauntingly beautiful poe t ry  into g ibber i sh?  Diffidently, we suggest  one poss ib le  answer .  Why should i t  not be possible to  m e a s u r e  a poet1  s abi l i ty  t o  se lect  words  ge rmzne  to h i s  m e s s a g e ?  The m o r e  skilfully h e  h a s  selected h i s  vocabulary  to  convey a given thought,  the m o r e  difficult it  should b e  to  u s e  t he se  s a m e  words to convey any other  idea .  Of course ,  it i s  h a r d  to put a p r e c i s e  m e a s u r e  on the  value of t he  s c r amb led  poem a s  compared  with the or iginal .  One m a y  pe rhaps  object to th is  method of c r i t i c a l  ana lys i s  on the 214grounds that i t  favors  the poets of the eighteenth century over those of the twentieth; Gray'  s  Elegy in a Country Churchyard exp res ses  it- se l f  m o r e  c lear ly  than El iot1  s The Love Song of J .  Alfred Pruf rock ,  a t  l e a s t  to the l ay  r e a d e r .  Yet, Eliot comes through with flying color s , a s  the following fragment  and i t s  sc ramble  suggest:  Upon the flannel beach I hea rd  A singing par t  to ' I  Hair" . i v y  m e r m a i d '  s  t r o u s e r s  have behind The white each  peach shal l  wea r .  Each shal l  I walk to  ea t ,  and I . . . I shall  da re  ! Shall I par t  my ha i r  behind? Shall I da re  to  ea t  a peach? I shal l  wear white flannel t r o u s e r s  , and walk upon the beach. I have h e a d  the merma ids  singing, each  to each.  I s  t he re  any doubt in the r eade r  s mind ( even i f  he i s  unfamiliar with El iot)  which i s  the or iginal?  Nor do ea r l i e r  poets always have a c l ea r  advantage. Consider the following excerpt f r o m  The Habit of Per fec t ion ,  writ ten in the l a s t  half of the l a s t  century by Gera rd  Manley Hopkins , and compare it with i t s  garble:  Hear  m e  ! Silence ! Elec ted ,  I Beat u$on the whorled pipe.  Sing To music  (And to  m e  ! )  And be m y  e a r  T o  pas tu re s  that  Still c a r e .  Elected Silence,  sing to m e  And beat upon my whorled e a r ,  Pipe m e  to pas tures  s t i l l  and be The music  that I c a r e  to hea r .  Although most  r e a d e r s  will co r r ec t ly  identify the second vers ion a s  the or iginal ,  we think that the sc ramble  gives i t  a good run for  the money - -  in this c a s e ,  s ense  instead of dol lars .  Perhaps  this helps explain why Hopkins i s  a much le s  s  well-known poet than ei ther  Fitz- gerald  o r  Eliot. A second,  m o r e  mundane, use  for sc rambled  poetry i s  to t e s t  the r eade r  s  poetic knowledge. In fac t ,  it was for  this reason  that the pied poems in this a r t ic le  were  f i r s t  constructed,  Last  y e a r ,  Margaret  F a r -  r a r  approached the senior  author to do a. puzzle feature for the new magaz ine ,  World. The scrambled  poetry idea was proposed to the edi- t o r s  of that magazine,  but a f t e r  mulling i t  over  for severa l  months they turned i t  down, probably because i t  was too e so t e r i c  for the readersh ip .  215

Pied Poetry

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Pied Poetry

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