Wednesday 3 June 2020

Composing The Curious Spell

Operation Luna, 21.

"'Blank verse until the last, which the melody requires be an Alexandrine.'" (p. 189)

Blank verse is unrhymed. Alexandrine is: see here.

Then at the last and only couplet fraught
With some unmeaning thing they call a thought,
A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.

-copied from the Wikipedia article linked above.

Frogmorton puns:

"'...Pope is Dryden as dust...'" (p. 190)

Ginny decides against O'Carolan. They consider Rupert Brooke and Shelley's The Revolt of Islam, the latter potentially contributing:

"'An added dimension for the continuum of cultural conflict. And it has the necessary scansion.'" (ibid.)

When Ginny has written the spell on "...wyvern-wing parchment..." (ibid.), Frogmorton:

"...thrice dripped wax from the bees of Delphi on it..." (ibid.)

The Delphians say that the second temple was made by bees from bees-wax and feathers, and that it was sent to the Hyperboreans by Apollo.
-copied from the Wikipedia article linked from "Delphi," above -

- "...to stamp with the sigils of Thoth, Solomon, and St. George." (ibid.)

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Poul Anderson might not have cared much for the poetry of Pope or Dryden, but I have thought the latter's poem "Absalom and Achitophel" might be interesting. A poetic, allegorical treatment of the bitter feud between Charles II and Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury (sometimes acrimoniously called "My Lord SHIFTSbury" by his enemies).

Ad astra! Sean