Day 24 #NaPoWriMo Poetry Challenge Inspiration
Today’s video resource is this rather charming film by Marie Craven, based on Sarah Sloat’s poem “Dictionary Illustrations.”
Today’s (optional) prompt is to write a poem that, like “Dictionary Illustrations,” is inspired by a reference book. Locate a dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia, open it at random, and consider the two pages in front of you to be your inspirational playground for the day. Maybe a strange word will catch your eye, or perhaps the mishmash of information will provide you with the germ of a poem. For what it’s worth, my 1961 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 11, has just informed me that despite “his beauty,” the “profligacy” of the Emperor Heliogabalus’s life “was such as to shock even the Roman public,” while also presenting me with a lovely little line drawing of a variant of heliotrope, the flowers of which are said to smell like cherry pie.
Happy writing!
Dictionary Illustrations by Marie Craven
This is an exciting prompt and I have just the thing. However, I have a long car drive to visit family today so it will have to wait until later. For my inspiration I used my beautiful collection of Harmsworth’s Universal Encyclopedia. My collection holds nine volumes and although undated inside it is believed they were printed in the early 1920’s.
Harmsworth’s Universal Encyclopedia
Harmsworth’s Universal Encyclopedia (WIP)
A pitiful attempt in a day full of distractions
along with great knowledge from books filled with attractions.
Nine volumes in Harmsworth’s Universal Encyclopedia
a lot different from today’s interactive multi-media.
So the book I pull out is vol. number nine
Skram to Zyrians I’m sure will be fine.
The Front page is number seventy one, sixty nine
and I’ll flick through each page to the books finish line.
The pictures throughout almost all black and white,
with a few sparsely coloured for our pleasure and delight.
The main illustration on the very first page,
is a skull of a human of indeterminable age.
It’s shown from three views, from front, left and below,
each carefully numbered an engaging tableau.
It explains to us where, each part does lie
then our minds fill with wonder and a new question why?
So the page tells us See: Anthropology, bone and brain,
which may well explain, but bring up more questions again.Copyright © April 2019 Rose English
Please note that this is still a work in progress.(WIP)
Thank you for visiting.
Rose English UK 