Now poor Lewis Carroll was over a barrel,
his publisher, brimming with malice,
said "You must write more, or we'll show you the door—
we can't get enough of young Alice!"
In language well versed, he muttered and cursed,
"This bleeping demand is outrageous.
The publisher's mad, my contract is bad,
and not the least bit advantageous!"
"With no super powers, it comes down to hours—
I find myself constantly lacking;
each day's twenty-four, not a single one more.
It's hardly as if I am slacking!"
All done with lamenting, Lew took to inventing—
he really was quite innovative.
He sketched and designed, adapted, refined—
"I'll make those fools appreciative!"
And when he was done, Lew shouted "I've won!
I'll show all those chumps, cruel and callous—
I can now work at night, so I'll write and I'll write
'til they've all had a gutful of Alice!"
And so ends this tale. We see Lewis prevail—
just look at the fortune he's makin'!
A most clever writer, whose future got brighter,
and his nyctograph helped save his bacon.
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Author Notes
Today's word:
nyctograph (n.) a device for writing at night.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyctography:
Nyctography is a form of substitution cipher writing created by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) in 1891.
Nyctography is written with a nyctograph (also invented by Carroll) and uses a system of dots and/or strokes all based on a dot placed in the upper left corner. Using the Nyctograph, one could quickly jot down ideas or notes without the aid of light.
Carroll invented the Nyctograph and Nyctography because he was often awakened during the night with thoughts that needed to be written down immediately, and didn't want to go through the lengthy process of lighting a lamp just to have to extinguish it shortly thereafter.
My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.
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