Take a poem and rearrange its words into an alphabetical list; then give this list to a person unfamiliar with the original poem and ask him to construct a second poem out of this material. How similar will the two poems be

Bergerson, Howard W.

Eckler, A. Ross

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percussion. ro­lk like, AR 1\ GUS­)US pure d? Do n the se udent. i who solved D PERI­JMARTS. Cli­:ologist, . accept :e ITlay be. 139 THREE POEMS FROM ONE FOUNTAIN HOWARD W. BERGERSON Sweet HOITle, Oregon A. ROSS ECKLER Morristown, New Jer sey Take a poeITl and rearrange its words into an alphabetical list; then give this list to a per son unfaITliliar with the original poeITl and ask hiITl to construct a second poeITl out of this ITlaterial. How siITlilar will the two poeITls be? Ordinarily, a poet selects and per­ITlutes words siITlultaneously in the creation of a poeITl, but after the poeITl is written the poet I s activity can be analyzed as two separate activities. The selection of words can be done first, and the per­mutation of words second; in fact, the second poeITl can be written by two different people, the Poet of Selection and the Poet of Per­ITlutation. If selection is far ITlore iITlportant a process than perITlu­tation, then one ITlight expect the second poeITl to be very ITluch like the original; if, on the other hand, permutation is ITluch ITlore iITl­portant, then the two poems should be quite different. A pair of poeITls created in this manner was pre sented in the May 1969 issue of Word Ways. The results of a more elaborate experiITlent in poetic reconstruction are given in this article. J. A. Lindon of Weybridge, Surrey, England supplied the authors with an alphabetical Ii st of a 338- word original poeITl, and we independ­entl y constructed new poeITls out of this ITlaterial . The three poeITlS are presented below. We independently de­cided not to imitate the original line-lengths (also given by MY. Lindon) ; furthermore. we did not atteITlpt to rhYITle the line s. Even so, we found the labor of construction considerable. At the end of our effort, our feeling was that the Poet of PerITlutation had a ve ry iITlportant role to play - - the stockpile of words did not dic­tate a unique story, but ITlany more-or-less plausible stories. In fact, our task was analogous to that of a person who is presented a Rorschach ink-blot and asked to describe what he sees in it. The reconstructed poeITls tell a great deal 'about the personalities of the reconstructors, and ought to be of more interest to psycholog­i st s than poet s on thi s ac count. 140 USURPER J.A. Lindon Still plainly can I see myself In the parlour of my fir st remembered horne Planted like some doll-mascot on a shelf Upon the table for the family comb To be run through my curls - - bright gold their colour. I had on one of those brown velvet suits With trim lace cuff s and collar And my boots Were white with small neat buttons. It is quaint But I can see all thi s; not in the mirror Above the mantelpiece, but from a point Behind and to the left. Perhap,s an error Of recollection here, yet I recall Watching that tiny figure, now with badge (Class One) upon his jersey, late for school, Marching alone around the playground I sedge As he had learnt to do; and one spring day Of pale tall-windowed light Stamping in temper on his lunch: mincepie And chocolate- cream. I see him wait, Gloating with inward glee, Seated at table by my Auntie Nell,· Eyes on the titbit of jam-pudding she Is saving till the last; then -- imp of hell The pepper-pot! When fir st I grew aware Of him I cannot say. but it seems certain now That always he was there Taking the credit and the bow While I, his unknown impresario, Stood watching f rom the wing s , For he was so Much more adept at things, So bold, so confident, so unashamed, And if I pushed in front Would vanish, leaving me with cheeks that flamed To play my chosen role and bear the brunt Of mocked ineptitude. He, always he, Took horne the prizes, won the girls, enjoyed The spending of my money, while for me Only the old undignified Rebuffs, the failures and the bills. So it has always been, and so it is And will be till the day when something tells Me I must put a final stop to thi s, That now he goe s too far, and I shall have To shou The her The sta, LAST T I cannot Will the In the p It is on] So be st My faih I - - to ! Now in: Bow to] He stOOl So, I ca When SF Watchin A class And cur I won m By gloa1 The bru At last. Leaving Like SOl She moe For it s Then I r I took m Enjoyed But -- \"I Of Aunti Too late So trim Was cer But shal See him And put SomethiJ 141 To shoulder him aside, pick up and drink The hero s cup myself and, startled, leave' The stage untenanted, the part a blank. LAST THOUGHTS OF THE OUTSIDER Howard W. Bergerson I cannot always and for always Will the bright colour of planted things to stop In the pale light of the fir st spring day. It is only a while till I leave for the Unknown Front So be still. There has been much to recall: My failures, perhaps; my first ineptitude. W1Ien small, I -- to my credit -- had a horne. Now in inward recollection far I vanish Bow to him (the one chosen figure) as of old. He stood so confident - - he, so adept, and he, so bold. So, I can see plainly on him the hero I s badge When spending the money upon bills, and saving gold. Watching from the tall-windowed parlour above the school A class of girls, neat in jersey suits And curls and boot s, marching around the playground I sedge, I won myself cuffs; and -- more to the point By gloating on chocolate-cream at the table, The brunt of his rebuffs. At last, for a day, he and his family left their horne, Leaving the tiny doll-mascot seated on the mantelpiece Like some quaint impresario in the now untenanted stage and wings . .she mocked me with brown eye s -­For it seeITlS I ITlyself had to do the play! Then I reITlembered ITly role and part was always -- lunch! I took ITly pick of the jaITl-pudding upon the shelf, Enjoyed the m.incepie titbit on the table with glee, But -- while taking those prizes -- grew aware through the mirror Of Auntie Nell behind ITle, watching. Too late! My cheeks flamed! The teITlper of that pepper-pot, So triITl with velvet buttons and collar, white lace and COITlb, Was certain hell. But shall the one his shoulder pushed aside See him bear with, be startled of, And put up with that stamping iITlp? Is thi sit? SOITlething tells ITle, 11 Wait and see. 11 If he were here now, 142 He would say it is an error that I have not learnt That one rrmst drink from this final cup alone. Yet I can but run, undignified and unashamed, Till all goes blank. MALAISE A. Ro s sEckler He seems so adept and confident. So he has always been an impresario, And, while gloating on my failures, Took the credit and won the prizes. Boots stamping, unashamed of it, he had the hero I s role to play! And I stood still in the wings, Watching him bow till he had left the bright stage light, And would see myself chosen for that part. I, always the small imp with the pepper-pot temper, With tiny cheeks flamed through with colour, Remembered when the girls were marching to class For the fir st day of school - - and their certain rebuff s. He pushed me to the playground I s shoulder And, while taking the badge of gold on my je r sey , Mocked my ineptitude. One can see that it suits him to spring at me like thi s, Till I, startled, run far from here. But this is so undignified. One error was to leave horne and family. Too late I learnt, it is hell to be alone. My inward glee grew all the day, when I was horne. By the mirror, I comb my brown curls aside, And recall neat Auntie Nell, so pale and white in front of the mantelpiece, A quaint figure in buttons and old lace With trim of velvet around the collar and upon the cuff s. Seated there at the table for lunch, with a jam-pudding and a mincepie, I enjoyed a drink from the cup upon the shelf above. Then she put the final titbit of chocolate-cream on the table. But now that tall-windowed parlour goes untenanted. If I do not stop spending so much, My money shall vanish, leaving only the bills behind. Can I, so plainly aware that saving is unknown, wait for the se things? But see! As of now, I cannot bear the brunt Of his bo1 Have I pel It tells hiJ First and Must one If an) reconstru ical 1i st. ferent, ar HWB: B long tim Althougr against i with an i An ole was d, things larly' by Au: all. I fear, r reader i use the' pear in . ARE: I, dominan chocolat ge sted a ance. 1 that par that the times _. deal of j interest appeare onists, were fel and 1001­Auntie r stampin groups I lunch, ~ 143 Of his bold eyes watching point blank. Have I perhaps planted some thing in his recollection? It tells him yet more of myself. First and last, some now say he will pick me up. Must one be always on the edge - - his doll-mascot? If any reader of Word Ways wishes to try his hand at another reconstruction, we a"re prepared to offer him a 259-word alphabet­ical list. Our me'thodologies of reconstruction were somewhat dif­ferent, and are outlined below. y! HWB: Before actually beginning my reconstruction, I tried for a long time to divine from the word-list what J AL 1 s story was about. Although there were many elements in the word-list that argued against it, the list as a whole sugge sted one particular story to me, with an insistence that never let up: An old man is thinking back to when he was a small boy. He was denied certain things he wanted, namely, sweets and good things to eat. When the family - - to which he doe sn I t particu­larly belong -- is away, he raids the kitchen. But he is caught by Auntie Nell who had evidently not gone with the others after all. I fear, however, that there are obscurities in the poem which the reader is unlikely to penetrate - - for example, I was forced to use the words Unknown Front to suggest death, which did not ap­pear in the list. ARE: I .first looked for groups of closely-related words to identify dominant theme s; for example, the words (lunch, mincepie. titbit, chocolate- cream, cup, drink, table, jam-pudding, pepper -pot) sug­gested a meal, and others suggested clothes and a stage perform­ance. Three words (remembered, recall, recollection) implied that part of the story took place earlier, I was astounded to find that the fir st-person pronouns (I, me, my, myself) appeared 22 times - - nearly seven per cent of the poem! Clearly, a great deal of introspection (and narcissism, coupled with the clothes rlC epie , interest) was present. Third-person pronouns (he, him, his) appeared 12 times. The story had to be built around two protag­onists, .!. and he; the drama would be heightened if the narrator we re female. Having done this spadework, I went through the list and looked for natural phrase s to be built out of words - - such as Auntie Nell, eyes watching, bear the brunt of, point blank, boots stamping, took the credit, etc. Next, I built up the phrase s into .ings? groups of two or three sentences each on a single subject -- eating lunch, seeing Auntie Nell in the parlour, being persecuted (by 144 11 him!') on the school grounds. In general, my strategy was to include awkward words (doll-mascot J impresario, mantelpiece) into the narrative as aarly as possible, neglecting common fillers (the, a, but, always, too) which could be easily inserted at the last moment. VV-hen all the words had been tucked in somewhere, I rearranged the sentences in as logical a story as possible, se­lecting a beginning and ending first. By now, it appeared quite clear that the story dealt with a most unhappy and persecuted young girl, who was contrasting her pre sent woe s with a more sheltered earlier life. QUERY While exploring the arithmetic of word ladders in the August 1968 is sue of Word Ways, Rudolph Ca stown gener ated a set of 16 four-letter words using only two different initial letter s, two different second letter s, two different third letter sand two different final letters. In his example, each word began with either S or F, had a second letter either I or A, a third letter either Nor T, and a final letter either E or S. If all possible letter-choices lead to legitimate words, let us call the re sultant set of words a garble group in recognition of the fact that any change (garble) in the letter s of a word leads inevitably to another word. Garble groups can be formed of words of any length; furthermore, it is not necess­ary that the number of alternative letter- choices be the same for each po sition. For example, BIG, BAG, BUG, BIT, BAT, BUT, BID, BAD, BUD, BIN, BAN. BUN form a garble group with one, three and four letter- choice s. How large a garble group is it possible to construct? It is conjectured that if one is restricted to uncapitalized entries (above or below the line) in Webster l s Second, garble groups of 50 or more are po ssible. Smaller garble groups of common words of various lengths would also be of logological interest. MYS' DMITI Oak P; Do fled? did beJ Ou one of of the ME 1\1 au Pe mi in bil The a< what i readin ( l) W rr: ( 2) H< If c< ta kJ tl: ( 3) I~ a1 ( 4) VI n IT ( 5) If ir a. 

Three Poems from One Fountain

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Three Poems from One Fountain

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