Seven Degrees of (Un)Certainty

[SleepyWitch]

here's a totally nonsensical poem i've just written after studying English modal verbs for 2 hours :) yep, I know it's nonsense, what else could a poem inspired by grammer turn out to be :)



Seven degrees of (Un)Certainty
This must be Anne
she can't be awake
she needn't be dead, though
at home or tomorrow
she should be at home

"Will I see you tonight?"
asked the old spring chicken
overlooking the bay
he predicted the past
in the future
future in the past
predicting the future

What can it mean?
We might never succeed
succeed
success
successful
succeed in predicting the past

"Just hypothetically speaking,"
said the tentative chicken
"Could I borrow your pen?"
But where's Anne gone?
Where can she be?

Water boils at a hundred degrees
and oil will float on water.
He might try harder next time.
He might.
Next time
he might try harder
predicting.

Of course, I might be wrong.

[Pendragon]

Love it. Love it. Love it! And that final line:


Of course, I might be wrong

How many times have people heard me use that quote of Charles Schultz through Snoopy: "Has it ever occured to you that you might be wrong?" That is my motto on the Religious forums! Great one!

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/AbsalomKane/Smilies/Appaluse.gifhttp://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/AbsalomKane/Smilies/Appaluse.gif

[Virgil]

Interesting poem. Sleepy. I've seen worse. Shows you that just because one writes sentences in stanza form doesn't mean it's poetry.

[SleepyWitch]

Interesting poem. Sleepy. I've seen worse. Shows you that just because one writes sentences in stanza form doesn't mean it's poetry.
"I've seen worse" as in "I've seen better,too"?`;)
hehe, i know it's not poetry. basically, i just strung together some of the example sentences from the grammar hand out and added some other nonsense :) the point is that none of these sentences make much sense in isolation, but if you present them as a "poem" some nutter might actually find a deeper meaning in them :)

[SleepyWitch]

Love it. Love it. Love it! And that final line:



How many times have people heard me use that quote of Charles Schultz through Snoopy: "Has it ever occured to you that you might be wrong?" That is my motto on the Religious forums! Great one!

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/AbsalomKane/Smilies/Appaluse.gifhttp://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/AbsalomKane/Smilies/Appaluse.gif

thanks Uncle Pen.
what do you like about it? *fishing for compliments* :)
hehe, when I said (to Uncle Virgil) some nutter would like it, I didn't mean you :)
what I mean is, it's a nonsense poem, but if you try hard, maybe there's even some deeper meaning to it.. or at least some sort of plot

[blp]

Well, I liked it too, especially the first stanza and the relationship of 'tomorrow' in that to 'tonight' in the next one. Breaks down a bit after that maybe, but still, an interesting read!

[SleepyWitch]

Well, I liked it too, especially the first stanza and the relationship of 'tomorrow' in that to 'tonight' in the next one. Breaks down a bit after that maybe, but still, an interesting read!

hehe, well it wasn't meant to be particularly breathtaking. i just tried to accomodate all the stupid modal auixiliaries I had to study in order of descending certainty :)

[blp]

You see, I think that's a completely interesting idea and a rather poetic one. A strategy worthy of the Oulipo.

[SleepyWitch]

You see, I think that's a completely interesting idea and a rather poetic one. A strategy worthy of the Oulipo.

who's Oulipo? some famous poet?
but you're right.. maybe i could/can/should/must/ought to/etc improve the second half somehow while keeping all the auxiliaries intact :) *i hate editing* :)

[blp]

The Oulipo were a mostly French group of writers including Georges Perec, Raymond Queneau and the American Harry Matthews, who were interested in the possibilities of placing extreme formal restraints on their writing - often with similarly surrealistic results to yours. Perec wrote a novel (called A Void in English) entirely without the use of the letter 'e'.

[SleepyWitch]

The Oulipo were a mostly French group of writers including Georges Perec, Raymond Queneau and the American Harry Matthews, who were interested in the possibilities of placing extreme formal restraints on their writing - often with similarly surrealistic results to yours. Perec wrote a novel (called A Void in English) entirely without the use of the letter 'e'.

i see... booohooo, my ignorance knows no bounds :bawling:
unfortunately, I don't speak French but I'll read some of Harry Matthews' poems
thanks :)

[blp]

Don't cry! They're not that well-known. But most of the work is translated.

[Pendragon]

What did I like about it? What is there NOT to like about it? http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/AbsalomKane/alfred_e_neumanS1.jpg

[SleepyWitch]

What did I like about it? What is there NOT to like about it? http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/AbsalomKane/alfred_e_neumanS1.jpg

right, i know I'm greedy :) I'll stand in the corner and be ashamed of myself :)