Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Episode 520: Nothing Rhymes With Orange

Could have gone home after my seminar in the morning, but ended up hanging out with friends in Curiositea and then The Dirty Duck until 7 pm! All this after my good intentions to start reading for my essay today. To comfort myself over this skiving, I had four Gü brownies for dinner. (I hope they're still on offer at Tesco this Sunday, in which case, I'll buy loads because they are so good.) I have done a tiny bit of work today though, composing a poem about a hypothetical dressmaker driven out of business by Queen Victoria's decision to wear white at her wedding. Apparently, she did it because she had some lace she wanted to use. I decided not to write about a queen because the lines I was coming up with sounded silly. That's not to say the poem I did end up writing is particularly good, but for what it's worth, it's much easier to imagine what it's like to be a royal dressmaker than a queen. Am going to write one tomorrow about the asp that bit Cleopatra. (Thanks to Dan for the idea that I've more or less stolen!) Anyway, I shall leave you with this poem that I discovered while doing a bit of historical research into the tradition of white weddings. I'm particularly impressed by the perfect rhymes, which also explains why there's no mention of orange:

Married in white, you will have chosen all right.
Married in grey, you will go far away.
Married in black, you will wish yourself back.
Married in red, you will wish yourself dead.
Married in blue, you will always be true.
Married in pearl, you will live in a whirl.
Married in green, ashamed to be seen.
Married in yellow, ashamed of the fellow.
Married in brown, you will live out of town.
Married in pink, your spirits will sink.

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