eMule -> The Poetry Archive -> Forums -> User Submitted Poetry
Here are the first two lines of a haiku by Adaline More.
You are asked to add the third line and answer both questions.
What killed the cat?
Why do I want to know that?
... ... ... ... ...
Yes, Pam.
You can do it!
JP
You've got it!
I will have to dream up a real 'stinker' to slow you down.
Sorry, didn't get a chance to get back. Way to go, JP!
pam
Do the first two lines have to rhyme?
What seldom knocks twice?
Why would I ask your advice?
... ... ... ... ...
Opportunity fits, but what's that got to do with asking advice? Must be something else. I'll wait.
Hey, I needed the rhyme, ok? I did once know a piano tuner named Opperknockety who always only tuned once, though.
I'll try to make up a better one.
That was part of my problem with Soma's. I was trying to make a line that rhymed!
Your joke brought Keats to mind--
"My ear is open like a greedy shark,
To catch the tunings of a voice divine. "
(Thanks to Lord Peter Wimsey for first bringing it to my attention)
pam
The postman always rings twice, I believe.......
Try my Hamlet haiku:
To be, or not to ...?
Why can't I recall what's next?
That is the question.
Does the third line refer to the first question or the second?
PS
Will my solution
prove to be, or not to be,
unquestionable?
Be it the answer
What is your recollection?
That is the question.
So sorry, I'm really not too good at this.
JP
This is a direct question - one of the two choices is correct.
There needs to be a reasonable reason for your answer.
The answer is not required in haiku,
but I don't imagine that will stop yu.
I don't know why you can't recall what's next, perhaps those slings and arrows have left you brain damaged. This one's too tough for me. JP
Third line points at two
And the problem is caused by
Alzheimer's disease?
Line one is rhetorical, therefore is not a question.
What did Sherlock say
Right before my dear Watson?
... ... ... ... ...
perhaps those slings and arrows have left you brain damaged. (says JP)
the problem is caused by Alzheimer's disease? (says Hugh)
Whoa! you two guys. I did ask "Why can't I recall what's next?"
I don't think I'm around the twist just yet but if I am then
thousands of others are, too, maybe even both of you.
Line one is rhetorical, therefore is not a question.
I disagree! Although I can't recall what's missing I still know a question
is involved therefore I think I'm entitled to end it with a question mark '?'
just as Shakespeare did!
soma,
Could hugh have possibly been somewhat unintentionally on track with his alzheimer's crack. Mignt this be a kinda riddle within a riddle, where the answer is actually already there in the third llne itself; unbeknownst to questioner as if he/she is apparently afflicted with alzheimer's or dementia, and unaware of having already answered their own question? 
namaste,
jazzy
like pam, that's what threw me off as well.
third line refers to both first and second question, right?
third line refers to both first and second question, right?
No! the third line refers to only one of the questions.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Alzheimer's disease or any mental deficiency. It is to do with recollection. Why can't I recall the entire Encyclopædia Britannica? Surely not because of Alzheimer's.
The answer is line two. "Our memories are card-indexes consulted, and then put back in disorder by authorities whom we do not control." -
'The Unquiet Grave'
Why can't I (you) recall the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica?
Well, for one obvious reason the mere fact no one can possibly retain or even absorb more than a infinitesimal portion of it! So again, a rather misleading clue!
JP
You have almost got the answer - you need to apply it to the "Hamletian" case.
"recall" means "to bring back from memory" [Random House dictionary] so when I say "Why can't I recall what's next?" it must be something that is in my memory but somehow has got muddled for some reason. All I seek from you is a "reasonable" reason.
I have tried to emphasize that it is a memory only problem - not a brain disorder. In an endeavour to make that point I used the Encyclopædia example which jazzy said was "another" misleading clue. I except his criticism. I made a bad choice, there. If, instead, I had said (truthfully) "I once memorised 100 poems and could recall them word perfect. Why can't I recall them so today?" I am sure any of you could suggest possible reasons.
Although I did not mention it before, this puzzle did not arise out of nothing but from a conversation with my friend. She asked me something about Shakespeare which caused me to recite Hamlet's soliloquy from memory. I got muddled. I tried again and stumbled again, and again. In the midst of trying to recall the correct words, I repeated the opening phrase very slowly and automatically while deep in thought "To be, or not to..." to which my friend added "be". I responded "There's a lot more to it than that, but why can't I recall what it is?" "Your memory is not as good as it used to be," she said, and her reason makes pretty good sense!
Questions are always appended by a "?" and I have been scrupulous in my usage of them and this was indicated in an earlier post.
Are you devil, or are you man?
I've had no sleep since I began.
Pondering this topic
I've become myopic.
I'm admitting defeat, you have won.
Line one, since what comes after "To be or not....." is "that is the question."
I think the problem is that our brain cells get clogged up with old phone numbers, commercial jingles, and other unimportant stuff, leaving no room to keep the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Another solution might be that the EB, like your 100 poems, is still there, but you can't find it in the clutter. (like my desk)
pam
To be, or not to ...?
Please note what those '...' signify AND that a '?' is involved.
I didn't put that question mark there, Shakespeare did!
Did any of you check the text to see what is written there and the actual words I said I could not recall? No! it seems nobody checked. There have been some wonderful answers, just like Pam's recent one, and as much as I've enjoyed them they tend to express 'over-kill' reasons for my memory lapse.
The opening sentence of Hamlet's soliloquy reads:
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
There are quite a few words up to that question mark and I fail to remember them accurately but I'm sure that happens to many others, maybe, even you. My puzzle simply asked for a reason!
I forget the words
From 'be' to that question mark!
Senile decadence?
I imagine those lines have been declaimed many thousands or possibly millions of times but is it ever spoken as if a question is being asked?
Though it's a question
Great actors bellow it - like
Thessalian bulls.
Whoops! correction needed - not 'be' but 'to'
Sorry about that.
I forget the words
From 'to' to that question mark!
Senile decadence?
Hugh,
It is apocryphal that Sherlock went around spouting "Elementary my dear Watson". This MAY have appeared a time or two in the dozens of Conan-Doyle's stories. A more accurate response that still fits would be "The game is afoot!" (this also fills the requirement of an honest-to-goodness haiku to contain a reference to nature)
Perhaps what he really said was "Stop snoring, my dear Watson."
pam
I know that this is perhaps totally off topic, but the very first one that Soma posted isn't actually a haiku at all. Killed, is only one syllable and therefore the first line only has four.
Also to my knowledge, haiku don't rhyme, or at the very least, don't have to.
Just a thought. Have fun!
Bruce,
he could spell it like killèd and it's two again.
siren
"The game is afoot!"
Hah! Good point. At least he didn't say, the hand is afoot.
Has anyone noticed the horrible mixed metaphor in 'to take arms against a sea of troubles'?
Tsk, Will, double tsk, even.
Hugh-
Valid point. I'm sure the Bard doesn't need me to pull his ass out of the fire
(God, there's another one of those badly twisted metaphores!), but... I don't know... maybe that is LITERALLY what he meant... an exercise in futility?
It's good to make a dream...
Sajal Dutta
maybe that is LITERALLY what he meant... an exercise in futility?
That's the nice thing about being the best playwright/poet in the last 400 years - everyone just naturally assumes you don't make mistakes. Mebbe you are right, though. Take up 'oars' against a sea of troubles is surely no better.
I thought that one of my books at home used "To take arms against a sea of trouble" as an example of catachresis; so, since I am not at home, I googled for the quote and found this reference:
[www.nt.armstrong.edu] />
So I guess you could rephrase as 'And when you do make mistakes, the experts just create rhetorical terms to explain it'
InJoy,
Rudy
Jack,
You're too quiet over there. This thread was puzzling.
Marty
"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
--Mark Twain
What killed the cat?
Why do I want to know that?
An action or reaction?
To seek reason?
To combat cause?
Answers simply pause.