poetry

Ha Ha, Charade You Are!

Niall O'Donnell 1 Comment

Well, I’m a badass Cowboy livin’ in the Cowboy days.
Wiggy, wiggy, scratch, yo, yo, bang, bang.
Me and Artemus Clyde frog go save Salma Hayek from the big metal spider.
A wiggy wig wig wiggy wiggy wig
Fresh cowboy from the west side
Wiggy wiggy scratch yo yo bang bang
Me and Artemus Clyde frog go save Salma frog polly prissy pants
Go down to, well… rumpletumpskin

Yes, this is the second post I’ve got from a single song. One thing that really struck me when listening to “Pigs (Three of Them)” was the phrase in the title. I’d heard it before, you see, and I knew straight away from where. Continue reading →

Playwright

Niall O'Donnell 4 Comments

First of all, if you want to know about why today is called Boxing Day, I wrote about that here last year. If you didn’t read it then, I encourage you to do so. Even if you did read it last year, why not read it again? You might have forgotten all of the details. I know I have.

If you’re looking for something new though, how about a few brief lines about that curious word playwright?

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Synecdoche, Anywhere

Niall O'Donnell 5 Comments

Synecdoche (the E is pronounced like in recipe) is a literary device in which a part of something is used to refer to the whole (or vice versa). It’s mainly considered a poetic device, and most examples that people provide are from poems. In this passage from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” for example, the word wave stands in for the sea:

The western wave was all a-flame.
The day was well was nigh done!
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright Sun

We use the word wave similarly when we use the phrase on the wave. Similarly, we can say a bird is on the wing when it’s flying. These are the two examples I was given when I was introduced to the term, back in, I believe, my final year of primary school. I was intrigued by this strange-sounding and -looking word, and wanted to think of other examples, though nothing really came to mind. I soon came to think of it as a purely literary device that was interesting, but not hugely relevant to my life. But now wiser and with a wider vocabulary, I can see that synecdoche is actually fairly common.

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Burns Night!

Niall O'Donnell 7 Comments

I’ve just realised it’s Burns Night!

If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s a Scottish celebration of the poet Rabbie Burns, whose best-known is probably the song Auld Lang Syne. The night involves the Burns Supper, which can be quite an elaborate affair, and invariably involves a meal of haggis, neeps (turnips), and tatties (potatoes). Before it’s served there’s the Piping of the Haggis. Bagpipers play as the delicious dish is brought in, and the host or a guest then recites Burn’s Address to a Haggis:  Continue reading →