Saturday 22 August 2009

Wonderful Words (8ii): Pangram update

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog...

Well, Michelle, here is my Pangram poem... I cannot claim that it is a 'pure' Pangram poem for many of the constituent sentences have more than 26 letters, and one or two - I fear - have the odd letter missing. It needs more polish, so please consider it as a 'work in progress'. It is, of course, essentially a kind of 'Found Poem'. Here goes:

Γαζίες καὶ μυρτιὲς δὲν θὰ βρῶ πιὰ στὸ χρυσαφὶ ξέφωτο*1
A quart jar of oil mixed with zinc oxide makes a very bright paint. *2

Brown jars prevented the mixture from freezing too quickly.
An inspired calligrapher created pages of beauty using stick ink, quill, brush, pick-axe, buzz saw, or even strawberry jam.
Six big juicy steaks sizzled in a pan as five workmen left the quarry.
While making deep excavations we found some quaint bronze jewellery:
Jackdaws loved my big Sphinx of black quartz.
A large fawn jumped quickly over white zinc boxes:
On the boardwalk grave playful lizards quickly jumped and exercised.
The exodus of jazzy pigeons was craved by squeamish walkers.
Travelling beneath the azure sky in our jolly ox-cart, we often hit bumps quite hard.
Five jumbo oxen grazed quietly with packs of dogs.
As we explored the gulf of Zanzibar, we quickly moved closer to the jutting rocks.
Whenever the black fox jumped, the squirrel gazed suspiciously.
The jay, pig, fox, zebra, and my wolves quacked,*
"Uphill jogging will tax pounding heart muscle very quickly - better to be lazy:
Now is the time for all quick brown dogs to jump over the lazy lynx."
Six busy ducks quacked wildly when the zookeeper jumped off the gravel path:
Many big jackdaws zipped quickly over the fox pen.

Jolly housewives made inexpensive meals using quick-frozen vegetables.
The jukebox music puzzled a gentle visitor from a quaint valley town.
Fred specialized in the job of making very quaint wax toys:
Jack quietly moved up front and seized the big ball of wax.
The public was amazed to view the quickness and dexterity of the juggler.
Two hardy boxing kangaroos jetted in from Sydney to Zanzibar on quicksilver pinions.
Back in my quaint garden jaunty zinnias vied with flaunting phlox.

***

*1 Title: No more shall I see acacias or myrtles in the golden clearing (using the Greek alphabet).
*2 A quart jar of oil mixed with zinc oxide makes a very bright paint. (Epigram. For the significance of the 'jar of oil' see Aristophanes in The Frogs on Euripides - e.g. note against 'p.99' on linked page).
*3 Letters left in red in this line are extra to the alphabet requirement. (I charted this line as an example...).

Do feel free to analyze any further sentences, and let me know which letters are missing (or surplus to requirement!). One further point: I added a few extra letters on occasions to change the tense in pre-existing pangrams from present to past.

1 comment:

poefusion said...

Hello Caroline~ I have to say I'm impressed with this. So far you're the only one to give this a try. I'm proud of your attempt. Thanks for trying/ sharing. Loved your title for this. Have a great night.