Beowulf's Vocabulary Lessons

Beowulf, the epic poem, was the last piece of literature we read in English class. By the time I was finished, my copy was peppered in a rainbow of stickie notes, and rather than watch my thoroughly scripted study fall into the trash can, I saved them, with this glimmer of an idea that I'd record these brilliant vocabulary words I had discovered among the translated, Old English jargon.

And so, they've been sitting on my already-cluttered desk for about 3 weeks. But I came through, and now, the world can share in some obscure words to potentially put in some obscure poetry.

reconnoitre: to survey the enemy (not so obscure, but I had to look it up nonetheless)
thole: to endure; to tolerate
suppurate: to produce/discharge pus, as a wound
anathema: a person detested, damned
fen: a marsh; boggy land
damascened: inlaid with ornamental designs, of gold, silver
reave: to plunder
alacrity: liveliness; briskness; willingness
bier: a stand for a corpse or coffin
scud: to dart nimbly from place to place; to move hurriedly
kesh: a plant with a hollow stalk
boon: a favor or request; a thing that is helpful or beneficial
bane: a cause of great distress
spurn: to reject with contempt
bawn: (Irish origin) fortified enclosure around a castle or such building
wassail: a festivity of drinking (to healths, of course!)
pinion: to tie or hold the legs or arms of someone

at the crevice door (today's crane)

here and now, to you
crevice door

I greet with mine

ring my soul for
VOCALISM

dust

The dust on the corner lamp
is a symbol for my

vacancies

Brought out and turned on,
fingers swipe

realizations

Dust gathers on my unmoving soul

I See My Own Soul Tramp

While yet incessantly ask
Day upon day and year
Where you hold me

me up.

Yet giving to make me
      forever faces;

I see what I sought to
I see my own soul tramp

William Carlos Williams inspired

Your copy of Macbeth was on the coffee table, and
I knew you told me your grandpa gave it to you, and
that it was smudged by his ashes, and
I used it to make origami cranes



http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15535

Manhattan crowds, with their turbulent

Manhattan faces and eyes forever for me

crane of the day

fullgrown
She speaks to the limber lily's
Come here, she blushingly cries






Leaves of Grass