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Very Like a Whale

One thing that literature would be greatly the better for
Would be a more restricted employment by the authors of simile and
metaphor.
Authors of all races, be they Greeks, Romans, Teutons or Celts,
Can't seem just to say that anything is the thing it is but have to
go out of their way to say that it is like something else.
What does it mean when we are told
That that Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold?
In the first place, George Gordon Byron had enough experience
To know that it probably wasn't just one Assyrian, it was a lot of
Assyrians.
However, as too many arguments are apt to induce apoplexy and
thus hinder longevity.
We'll let it pass as one Assyrian for the sake of brevity.
Now then, this particular Assyrian, the one whose cohorts were
gleaming in purple and gold,
Just what does the poet mean when he says he came down like a
wold on the fold?
In heaven and earth more than is dreamed of in our philosophy
there are great many things.
But I don't imagine that among them there is a wolf with purple
and gold cohorts or purple and gold anythings.
No, no, Lord Byron, before I'll believe that this Assyrian was
actually like a wolf I must have some kind of proof;
Did he run on all fours and did he have a hairy tail and a big red
mouth and big white teeth and did he say Woof Woof?
Frankly I think it is very unlikely, and all you were entitled to say,
at the very most,
Was that the Assyrian cohorts came down like a lot of Assyrian
cohorts about to destroy the Hebrew host.
But that wasn't fancy enough for Lord Byron, oh dear me no, he
had to invent a lot of figures of speech and then interpolate them,
With the result that whenever you mention Old Testament soldiers
to people they say Oh yes, they're the ones that a lot of
wolves dressed up in gold and purple ate them.
That's the kind of thing that's being done all the time by poets,
from Homer to Tennyson;
They're always comparing ladies to lilies and veal to venison,
And they always say things like that the snow is a white blanket
after a winter storm.
Oh it is, is it, all right then, you sleep under a six-inch blanket of
snow and I'll sleep under a half-inch blanket of unpoetical
blanket material and we'll see which one keeps warm,
And after that maybe you'll begin to comprehend dimly
What I mean by too much metaphor and simile.

poem by Ogden Nash
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes

The Destruction of Sennacherib

I
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

II
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd,
And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there roll'd not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

III
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown.
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

poem by Byron (1815)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Like my colleague, I represent a large Assyrian community in central California, one of the largest concentrations of Assyrian Americans anywhere in the United States.

quote by Dennis Cardoza
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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For simele [a village massacred in northern irak]

build the old city, raise the ancient wall
walk in pride brother, sister head up..tall
trace the footsteps, in mud deep
Khoshaba [assyrian name] walked there, Meriam's silent weep
teardrops as to blood turn
raining heaven, my soul burn
candle on each footprint sign
3000 sun in Simele shine
from Simele lilyana [assyrian wedding songs] come spreading
Khoshaba and Meriam are wedding
time to joy arrive
Simele my tumble bet ever alive

poem by Zack Birkho
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Mine-Sweepers

Dawn off the Foreland -- the young flood making
Jumbled and short and steep --
Black in the hollows and bright where it's breaking --
Awkward water to sweep.
"Mines reported in the fairway,
Warn all traffic and detain.
Sent up Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain."

Noon off the Foreland -- the first ebb making
Lumpy and strong in the bight.
Boom after boom, and the golf-hut shaking
And the jackdaws wild with fright.
"Mines located in the fairway,
Boats now working up the chain,
Sweepers -- Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain."

Dusk off the Foreland -- the last light going
And the traffic crowding through,
And five damned trawlers with their syreens blowing
Heading the whole review!
"Sweep completed in the fairway,
No more mines remain.
Sent back Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain."

poem by Rudyard Kipling
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The Mine-Sweepers

poem by Rudyard Kipling
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Dark Purple

Under a blanket of dark purple
I do my best work.
Blue doesn’t do and Red goes
To my head.
Yellow’s too mellow and Black
just makes me dead.
Underneath my blanket, of mixed
Blue and Red sublime….
Is Purple, saintly Purple, I call
that color mine! ! !

poem by Susan Drozda Cooper
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Purple Toupee

I remember the year I went to camp
I heard about some lady named selma and some blacks
Somebody put their fingers in the presidents ears
It wasnt too much later they came out with johnsons wax
I remember the book depository where they crowned the king of cuba
Now thats all I can think of, but Im sure theres something else
Way down inside me I can feel it coming back
Purple toupee will show the way when summer brings you down
(purple toupee when summer brings you down)
Purple toupee and gold lame will turn your brain around
(purple toupee and gold lame)
Chinese people were fighting in the park
We tried to help them fight, no one appreciated that
Martin x was mad when they outlawed bell bottoms
Ten years later they were sharing the same cell
I shouted out, free the expo 67
Till they stepped on my hair, and they told me I was fat
Now Im very big, Im a big important man
And the only thing thats different is underneath my hat
Purple toupee will show the way when summer brings you down
(purple toupee when summer brings you down)
Purple toupee and gold lame will turn your brain around
(purple toupee and gold lame)
Purple toupee is here to stay after the hair has gone away
The purple brigade is marching from the grave
Were on some kind of mission
We have an obligation
We have to wear toupees

song performed by by They Might Be Giants
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ask a lot, but take what is offered.