I ran across three simple words in three simple poems.
* * *
1. lozenge
(n) [LOZ-inj]
Definition—a diamond-shaped figure
THE TORTOISE IN ETERNITY
Elinor Wylie
…Tougher than hide or lozenged bark,
Snow-storm and thunder proof,
And quick with sun, and thick with dark,
Is this my darling roof.
* * *
2. hogan
(n) [HŌ-gən]
Definition—
LITTLE PUPPY
From the Navajo American Indian
Transcribed by Hilda Faunce Wetherill
…They will lead the way
To the hogans where the fires burn
And the square cornbread is in the ashes,
Waiting our return.
* * *
3. welkin
(n) [WEL-kin]
Definition—the vault of heaven; the sky
THE SONG OF THE TOAD
John Burroughs
…For he can make the welkin ring,
And do it as his leisure.
7 comments:
What great words. I've only heard lozenge used as a cough drop, so I had no idea it means a diamond-shaped figure. Thanks for participating!
ditto on bermu re lozenges, but I guess it fits since many of them are squared up (i.e., diamond-shaped if you stand them on a point instead of a side)
I had a picture like that last one on my walls during college with Proverbs 23:5 framed up beside it.
Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
I'm gonna start posting that as a response every time I see one of these college students that I'm around talk about chasing paper, getting their hustle on, being married to money, money on their mind, etc.
Lozenge is also a hard boiled sweet!
Wow...I've actually knew one of your words - hogan...probably from the year of teaching fourth grade. :) Is this the whole of the poem The Tortoise in Eternity? I ask because I really like it and want to pass it on to my turtle/tortoise loving sister-in-law.
I love the way you make your words appear so beautiful with the pictures. I probably said that week but it's true this week too.
Brook,
Here's the whole poem. Hope your s-i-l enjoys it. :-)
"The Tortoise in Eternity"
by Elinor Wylie
Within my house of patterned horn
I sleep in such a bed
As men may keep before they're born
And after they are dead.
Sticks and stones may break their bones,
And words may make them bleed;
There is not one of them who owns
An armour to his need.
Tougher than hide or lozenged bark,
Snow-storm and thunder proof,
And quick with sun, and thick with dark,
Is this my darling roof.
Men's troubled dreams of death and birth
Pulse mother-o'-pearl to black;
I hear the rainbow bubble Earth
Square on my scornful back.
I like all of your words.
Very cool that you found them in poems.
It was neat to see what lozenge means as it conjures up a cough drop for me.
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