The Coward

Cowards die many times before their deaths… Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene 2 ~William Shakespeare spouse a souse classic grouse a big girl's blouse portent ominous assertions blasphemous obscure and anonymous his skulking is nefarious utterances acrimonious and implicature often dubious uxorious but still pusillanimous ********************************** An example of a rhopalic verse. Rhopalism: A rhopalic sentence is one in which each successive word is one letter longer than the previous one. In poetry: where each word is one syllable more, or it might increase each line in a stanza by one syllable (per my example), or a metric foot. IN THE SAME CATEGORY OF CONSTRAINED WRITING The Rhopalic Couplet, also called Wedge Verse, was first used by Homer in the Iliad (3.182). It is a poetic unit of 2 rhopalic lines where each word progresses adding one more syllable than the preceding word in the line, for example, 1, 2, 3, 4 … syllables. The sequence of the syllable count can be identical in the second line, or it may be reversed. The couplet does not need not rhyme. _____________________________________________________________ In The Coward, stanzas are broken up along the syllables of the end rhymes: spouse, souse, grouse, blouse; om-i-nous, blas-phe-mous, a-non-y-mous; ne-far-i-ous, ac-ri-mo-ni-ous, du-bi-ous & pu-sil-lan-i-mous. LEXICON acrimonious: (adj) (typically of speech or discussion) angry and bitter. a big girl’s blouse: British idiom, meaning someone is ineffectual or weak; someone failing to show masculine strength of determination disposition: (n.) inherent characteristics. grouse: (n.) one who complains constantly. implicature: (n.)* the action of implying a meaning beyond the literal sense of what is explicitly stated, for example, saying the picture frame is nice and implying I don’t like the picture. innate: (n.) inborn, natural nefarious: (adj) (typically of an action or activity) wicked or criminal. portent: (n.) 1. a sign or warning that a momentous or calamitous event is likely to happen, an omen. 2. (literary) an exceptional or wonderful person or thing. [‘What portent can be greater than a pious notary.’] pusillanimous: (adj) showing a lack of courage or determination; timid. souse: (n.) a drunkard.