holmes_minor | The Poetry Page: Social Distancing with Mrs. Hudson

Welcome, everyone, once more!

Now, I must admit I am still feeling a little hesitant about travelling too far from home but I am beginning to dream of being “on the bummel” again! To that end, I have retired my faithful old carpet bag and bought one of those new-fangled suit-cases. They are mainly designed for a gentleman’s suits naturally, hence the name. However, I have managed to procure a lightweight version, aimed at the discerning lady—

Yes, Mrs. Frankles?

No, suit-cases haven’t been around for decades and decades.

I can assure you they are a recent invention.

Look, is this the digital watch business all over again? I can arrange for you to speak to Mr. Camkin at the luggage-maker’s down by the river, if you like. He’s been in trunks for over twenty years!

No, he’s never mentioned being chilly. I… don’t quite understand your sense of humour at times, Mrs. Frankles.

Anyway… moving along! I hope my new purchase might inspire your poetry.

And as added inspiration here is a quotation from Dr. Watson’s story, “The Hound of the Baskervilles”:

Sir Henry was more pleased than surprised to see Sherlock Holmes, for he had for some days been expecting that recent events would bring him down from London. He did raise his eyebrows, however, when he found that my friend had neither any luggage nor any explanations for its absence.

Here as usual is the list of poetry forms:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, barzelletta, beeswing, blackout poetry, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cherita, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, clogyrnach, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, débat, décima, descort, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, echo verse, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, enuig, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, hay(na)ku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, puente, quatern, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rimas dissolutas, rime couée, rispetto, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, shadorma, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, tricube, trine, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle, xenolith

And so, let’s get started. We have a lot to… “pack in”!

(That was unkind, Mrs. Frankles. Just because I didn’t understand your joke…)

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Let’s pen a requiem to the hatbox,
for such a case is now a dying breed.
Prevailing trends allow for bare, flat locks
and softer crowns. The new girl has no need.

Young ladies who like to seem informed
on latest styles and all that’s marked smart-bred
will find their luggage choices much reformed,
but dash it all, a lass must keep her head!

She cannot wait for early spinsterhood
for leave to lug so old fashioned a tin.
Fruits of decapitation are a good
that want a round, deep case to haul them in.

Thus, miss must turn mademoiselle; her piece
must cross, Dover to Calais, in a valise!