Now the weather's driven us all back indoors, it seemed like a good time to post another puzzle poem.



Title

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Oh no! Just as I have to go out!!

Here's a start, anyway

Title ?Mocha/Coffee Making Woes

1. How strange it is that we on English soil
2. So often fail however much we toil
3. In making coffee such as ?Frenchmen boil
4. Do we lack sense or .... or water pure?
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

Title ?Mocha/Coffee Making Woes
The lines look as if they rhyme in groups of three

1. How strange it is that we on English soil
2. So often fail however much we toil
3. In making coffee such as ?Frenchmen boil
4. Do we lack sense or .... or water pure?
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. So this I urge that girls should take a turn
11. With fresh beans at the coffee urn
12. ?Greeting with a smile the cup's return.

Title ?Mocha/Coffee Making Woes
Agree they rhyme in groups of three

1. How strange it is that we on English soil
2. So often fail however much we toil
3. In making coffee such as ?Frenchmen boil
4. Do we lack sense or .... or water pure?
5. Do we bad coffee or thin milk procure
6. Tell me ........ housewives I adjure
7. The (coffee) pots rare fashioned are to please
8. There ........ and Viennese
9. So different from the simple pots for teas
10. So this I urge that girls should take a turn
11. With fresh beans at the coffee urn
12. ?Greet (or Meet?) with a smile the cup's return.

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

I'm stuck on the same bits as you both are. Do you think the title could be simply "Coffee Making"?

The chap looks so miserable though ...
Could line 6 be as simple as 'you busy housewives'?

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

It's the ÷ sign in line 6 that's throwing me as it suggests the "e" comes somewhere in the middle of the word rather than at the end. But that said, I can't think of anything better!

Edited to add that I think the flags in line 8 just represent countries all of which, presumably, have their own styles of coffee pot. The first one is a white ensign, the last could be the French tricolour. Not sure about the middle one, German? Could the line be:

Their British, German, French and Viennese?

I can't decide if it's meant to be a bus or a tram, either, which doesn't help!

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

Me neither, but when I googled synonyms for bus/charabanc, it didn't produce anything that you could insert an "e" into that made any sense.

Are we overthinking and those 2 plantpot like objects in line 4 are just pots.

By the way, I'd go with "Greet" rather than "Meet" in line 12 because the man is doffing his hat and they're shaking hands.

Sudden realisation - Yes title is just Coffee Making! The chap has toothache, so he's 'aching' in the M - further down there's 'a king' in the M which I 'got' straight away.

Agree the middle flag is German - the double-headed eagle of the Kaisers. Couldn't work flags into it, but if they represent the countries that would work.

ETA happy with greet or meet - both make sense.

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

I think it's not a tram, because it doesn't have any kind of catenary (or whatever) wire overhead. I know modern trams can be battery-operated instead, but I doubt they had those in the 1890s. Still no wiser about the division sign, though, even having found that its name is 'obelus'!

I wonder if the flags in line 8 are 'standards' - still doesn't quite scan, though. Maybe 'British, German, French and Viennese'? Though the first one is the White Ensign of the Royal Navy!

I didn't realise you hadn't twigged the toothache!


Looking at line 11 again, I've changed it to read,

"With freshly ground beans at the coffee urn". We seemed to be a couple of syllables short otherwise and I think the sign saying "Ground this morning" is probably significant.

Line 12 only has 10 syllables. I'm not sure if that's acceptable because it's the final line, or if we're 2 syllables short. "Greet" could be "Greeting" which would add one, but I can't see where another could be added.

Finally, does anyone want to have a crack at refining the punctuation or the text? This is what we have so far.


Coffee Making

1. How strange it is that we on English soil,
2. So often fail however much we toil,
3. In making coffee such as Frenchmen boil.
4. Do we lack sense or pots or water pure?
5. Do we bad coffee or thin milk procure?
6. Tell me you busy housewives I adjure.
7. The coffee pots rare fashioned are to please,
8. They're British, German, French and Viennese,
9. So different from the simple pots for teas.
10. So this I urge that girls should take a turn,
11. With freshly ground beans at the coffee urn
12. Greet with a smile the cup's return.

I'm not sure this is right, but it now all scans - and I've taken a bit of a liberty in line 10...

Coffee Making

1. How strange it is that we on English soil
2. So often fail, however much we toil,
3. In making coffee such as Frenchmen boil.
4. Do we lack sense or pots or water pure?
5. Do we bad coffee or thin milk procure?
6. Tell me, you busy housewives, I adjure.
7. The coffee pots rare fashioned are to please;
8. They're British, German, French and Viennese;
9. So different from the simple pots for teas.
10. So this I urge, that girls who'd take a turn
11. With fresh-ground coffee at the coffee urn,
12. Greet with a smile the coffee-cup's return.

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

Well done with line 12, I think you're right.

I prefer the original line 11, mainly because there's a bunch of beans in the picture as well as the bowl of ground coffee. Also, I don't think the same word would be mentioned twice in the same line. I'm not sure about the hyphenated coffee cups, but apart from that, I don't think we can improve on what we've already got.

Punctuation isn't my strong point when it comes to these poems, but we certainly seem to have done a belt and braces job on this one! There again, I think it shows how much we've improved at deciphering the words that we're now paying more attention to punctuation.


I'll wait for Noreen to have a look and see if she wants to add anything.

No, I've nothing to add to that. No doubt we won't have got it completely right, but you never know...

I take it all back about the hyphens, you were right! Actually, I think it's our best ever effort as far as the punctuation goes even if we did miss 2 vital (in their opinion) commas.

I also think our beans in line 12 is acceptable; while they may have been known as berries in Victorian times, they certainly aren't now. (And no wonder we couldn't work out "careful" in line 6.)

The Examiners' Report is quite entertaining and worth a read.

We didn't miss the line 6 commas, so that's good. though we missed the hyphen in rare-fashioned and the dash after urge.

I think we can give ourselves A- ... certainly better than B+!!

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

Yes, I think one of our more successful efforts, there!

Rather than start a new thread, I thought I'd just add to this one. I've been working my way through an earlier GOP volume and, at an admittedly quick glance, the puzzles in it seem a good bit harder. We've solved the last few so quickly, perhaps this one will give us more pause for thought and even draw a few more people in.



Title

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Line 6 is:

I sing to my love now the sun's awake

But just off to cook, so can't think any more until later.

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk