Sunday, November 15, 2009

Scrabble

...a miry path meanders to the sea
where down, below the kerb,
a tiny cottage hangs above the waves
that gainst the clifts do loudly roar (1)

a woman rounding up the tiles
as jewels put away in velvet purs
among the new learned words

(1)Edmund Spenser , The Faery Queene, IV, 11



Note: I wrote a few lines to celebrate my renewed passion for Scrabble , this time in English.
Oh, yeah, and you can join the poetry train too.

16 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...

I love Scrabble, haven't played for a while....

Linda Jacobs said...

I'm a Scrabble nut, too! I like how you used all the new words you've learned!

Ana said...

Juliet,
You must play it again. With the children if you cannot force any friend or neighbor to join you.
Linda,
Thanks. I need to use the words otherwise I forget them.
And yes, we have to play one day….

Paul said...

What a gorgeous quote. And your blog is looking beautiful too.

Jeeves said...

Enjoyed this one. Yeah. scrabble is an indulging game

Ana said...

@Paul,
thanks. I got a bannerwith red and green, for the season
@jeeves
:)well, indulging indeed.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

'a woman rounding up the tiles
as jewels put away in velvet purs
among the new learned words'

Just lovely.

b said...

I loved these.

b

http://torristravels.blogspot.com

Ana said...

@Julia
thanks
@Barbara
:)

Julie said...

I love the excerpt. Beautiful words. I'd love to be hanging above the waves in that cottage right now.

My family gets annoyed when they play Scrabble with me. As a word nerd, it's one of the few games I always win. My husband wins the number games. My daughter wins at strategy games. But I'm the Scrabble queen at my house. I couldn't beat the Scrabble experts, but it's fun to win a game at home. Thanks for reminding me. It's time to pull out the tiles again:)

Ana said...

@Julie
Me too, for the sea is many, many miles away from here.
I play on Facebook when I can’t get my son to play with me - (another good use for Facebook).
I remember telling my friend , the first time I played in English, that it is harder than writing poetry. And he asked “how that?” “ well, at least when I write I can find the letters for the words I want to make”

Sepiru Chris said...

Ana,

Nicely played here. I love your bringing up Spenser, and then augmenting his words with your own.

And such fine words.

Could I suggest one little amendment, which will give you one extra point on the board, provided it still fits...

I suspect that you meant purrs, as that makes far more sense than purse.

And, despite that, this is really remarkable. Very lovely. Thank you so much for sharing this.

Tschuess,
Chris

gautami tripathy said...

I too love scrabble!

ship-wreck

Ana said...

@Chris

I meant purs (obsolete for purse), because the bag where I keep the tiles is like one of old coin purses. You know velvet, embroidery, jewelry to decorate them, just this one is not that old and of course is imitation…

But purrs...My intention shall not prevent anyone from reading purrs, it is a completely new image and I like it a lot. As much as I like it when the reader re-writes the poem.

so please accept my thankful purrs
Ana

@Gautami
I am starting to think about a scrablle club for poets. Or a poetry club for scrabble players...

Anonymous said...

Love the relationship that you conjure between the quote and scrabble. The final image is delightful.

Ana said...

Brad,

thanks, the plain fact is that I discovered the quote playing scrabble.