The marble quarry at Tatlock, Ontario, courtesy of Gary Sparkes.
History
The letter Q is derived from the Greek koppa and Semitic qoph. The original meaning of qoph is most likely a “cord of wool” and the original representation, a knot. Another suggestion is that Q represented the eye of a needle with a thread. A similar word in Arabic suggests that it might mean “nape” and represent the back of a head and nape of the neck. Yet another suggestion is that Q represents a monkey. I rather like that one.
Q is for quatrain and quintain
In poetry, a quatrain is a four-line stanza and a quintain (or quintet) is a five-line stanza. These are usually part of a longer poem and may be variously rhymed.
There is something quieter than sleep
Within this inner room!
It wears a sprig upon its breast,
And will not tell its name.
— Emily Dickinson, from “Time and Eternity”
Exercises
Write your own quatrain or quintain using at least one Q word. Which form is easier to write?
Special reading assignment
The quintessential quiet in the quarter acre was accentuated by the murmur of quaking aspens.
This rock cut is located on Highway 7 west of Ottawa, Ontario.
R is for rhyme and rhyme scheme
A rhyme is the repetition of the same or similar sounds, most often in the final syllables of the final words in lines of poetry or song. Rhyme is also a verb, used even to describe how someone made an unintentionally poetic statement.
Rhyme is a poetic device. One common type of poetry features rhyming couplets.
All the stream that’s roaring by
Came out of a needle’s eye;
Things unborn, things that are gone,
From needle’s eye still goad it on.
— “A Needle’s Eye,” William Butler Yeats
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of the rhymes ending the lines of a poem or song. In English, different rhyme schemes have names, e.g., a limerick is AABBA.
Here is another example of rhyming couplets, using letters to mark the different rhymes.
He with body waged a fight, A
But body won; it walks upright. A
Then he struggled with the heart; B
Innocence and peace depart. B
Then he struggled with the mind; C
His proud heart he left behind. C
Now his wars on God begin; D
At stroke of midnight God shall win. D
— “The Four Ages of Man,” William Butler Yeats
Rhyming Mnemonic
Rhymes are also used as a mnemonic to aid memorization.
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Save February, with twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine each leap year.
— Anonymous
R is for rhythm
Rhythm is the regular beat of sounds and silence in speech, prose, poetry, or music. It is as natural as walking and breathing; our hearts beat in a rhythm. In music, the upbeat and downbeat correspond to the metre in poetry, which is measured in feet, e.g. da DUM, which is an iamb.
Iambic pentameter is a common rhythm in poetry, consisting of five iambs per line.
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
(Act 3, Scene 1)
—“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Shakespeare
Exercises
Do you have a favourite poem? What is its rhyme scheme and rhythm?
Do you know any mnemonics used as memory aids? Do they rhyme?
Special reading assignment
Rock cuts are a feature of Canadian landscape, especially in the north.
Rest assured, Rosemary has rated the recipe for roasted radishes.
A marching band turns a corner in Toronto’s Easter Parade.
P is for palindrome
A palindrome is a word, a sentence or a row of words, or even a longer statement that has the same meaning when the letters are reversed.
noon
Ah ha!
Tut tut!
A man, a plan, a canal: Panama
P is for pangram
A pangram is a sentence that contains all the letters of the alphabet.
The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.
My girl wove six dozen plaid jackets before she quit.
P is for paraprosdokian Paraprosdokian is a newly formed word created from the Greek for “against expectation”. It is a figure of speech with a surprise ending, popular with comedians.
I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it. —Groucho Marx.
Money can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with. —Anonymous.
P is for prosody and prosify
What’s that? Prosody is the study of poetry, even though it sounds as if it should be about prose. The word contains inside it the root ode, which is a lyric poem, perhaps meant to be sung. Prosody includes the study of versification, including metre, rhyme, and stanzas.
Getting the feel of the rhythms of a language as it is spoken is important for gaining understanding, and therefore, poetry is important for learning a language.
Prosify, on the other hand, means to turn something into prose.
Exercises
Can you find another palindrome? How about a pangram?
Can you create a paraprosdokian?
Find a little poem and write it out as prose (that is, prosify it).
Special reading assignment
Pease porridge hot,
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot,
Nine days old!
— English nursery rhyme, first published in 1760
Note: This blog post is an excerpt from a book, “English Manual: Letter by Letter,” to be published in the fall of 2014.
This shady outlook is on the bank of Lake Ontario, a good place to watch for birds.
O is for onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia, Greek for “word-making”, describes a word or name that imitates a sound. Commonly, onomatopoeic words include names for noises and for animals and objects that make noises.
Names for noises
buzz
moo
rattle
sizzle
vroom-vroom
Names for animals that make noises
bobolink (bird)
chickadee (bird)
katydid (insect)
phoebe (bird)
whip-poor-will (bird)
In poetry, onomatopoeia is a device used to suggest the sound being described.
And the West-Wind came at evening,
Walking lightly o’er the prairie,
Whispering to the leaves and blossoms,
Bending low the flowers and grasses…
—The Song of Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
O is for oxymoron
An oxymoron is the use of contradictory ideas in one expression in speaking or writing, to create an impression. In this case, the prefix oxy— means “sharp” and the suffix —moron, “foolish”.
open secret
original copy
typically odd
Exercises
Find some instances of onomatopoeia and oxymoron and use them in a sentence.
Use the word “outlook” in two different ways.
Special reading assignment
Of the opposite ovens, only one was often off.
Owls, nocturnal birds of prey, have captured the imagination in many ways. In literature, they represent messengers, wisdom, learning, and Athens. An owl may also be an omen. In real life, they just go about their own business.
English Manual: Letter by Letter 