What’s In a Name?

Hannah Roorda writes,

Despite feeling a bit intimidated about posting after John’s last challenging post (and indeed I am intimidated by almost all the posts on this blog, save mine) I have decided to “grace” this page once again with my poor attempts at poetry.

This is a brief alliterative poem. In alliterative verse, the lines are tied together by alliteration, rather than rhymes. At first this sounds easy and rather appealing, but good alliterative poetry may well be much harder to write. I make no claims about mine, though I have given myself a few more rules to follow, to make my path easier.

1. My alliterative words will start with only the letters appearing in my full name.
2. The poem will be an alliterative acrostic, because I will use the letters in the order and number of times they appear in my name, and I will begin each line with the object of alliteration. This is not vanity, I assure you, but the delight in a personal challenge (I have an inordinate number of repeated letters in my name).
3. The poem will address a personal botheration.

That by Any Other Name Would Still Smell
Ho, Hope! Hast thou held my heart high?
A more amicable association would be absence!
Now, thou art neither necessity,
Nor have I need for thee.
Abhor I thee, then? Absolute aspersion!
How I hope, yes Hope, to have thy sweetness.

Great genius I am not gifted with,
Rare resourcefulness, O reader, I require.
And albeit so, I admire if you understand–
Can you collect from my casting about?
Even empty fools face my common enigma

Right, I’ll relate to you my regular riddle:
On all occasions I own odd joy,
Or even offensive optimism!
Rest assured I require reason and resolution, and
Doubt desires I pay my debt.
Ah, but an absurd and airy girl remains so.

I would challenge you to try this also, especially if you enjoy time with a thesaurus. For more alliterative poetry, I recommend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Posted at 3:52 am EST on the 13th of June 2007 by H. G. Roorda.

Under Poetry as ,

There are 5 replies.
 
  1. Nick says on June 15th, 2007 at 10:47 pm

    Ah, Han, bravo. I tried doing something like that a short while ago, but failed miserably. Perhaps I’ll give it another shot sometime.

    And I have a copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight around here somewhere, but I haven’t yet gotten around to reading it. But that’s what summer’s for, right?

  2. Han says on June 18th, 2007 at 4:20 pm

    Thanks, Nick. I’m sure you could do it… besides, you have more interesting letters to choose from in your name, and l’s make for lovely alliteration. :-)

    Summer is a book-worm’s favorite time of year– I just finished The Two Gentlemen of Verona while I lazed around in bed refusing to get up. XD Gawain is very short, and well worth any time you put into it.

  3. Han says on June 18th, 2007 at 4:20 pm

    And oh, I must tell you to make sure you read Tolkien’s translation.

  4. John R. Ahern says on June 19th, 2007 at 2:39 pm

    Oh, yes, indeed. Very nice poem. (My sister had a friend named “Hope” who WAS a personal botheration. Mark can tell you all about that, though. Hey! Maybe I can even forward her this comment over email….)

    In any case, ingenious creation. As for Nick’s poetry….

    And don’t tempt him. I suppose you’ve heard his full name? Heavens, we’d have to be afflicted with thirthy (30) lines of his poetry, if he were to spell out his name. :-)

  5. Han says on June 29th, 2007 at 5:37 pm

    Thanks, John!

    Gracious, thirty is a bit excessive. But it would be a fun challenge!