I found something pretty cool... My youngest daughter is doing a family tree project for her English class. She's researching about my grandfather. It turns out he was born in a little place called Earnock. It is an area south of Hamilton in Lanarkshire, Scotland. As it seems, the area where he was born has disappeared. They have named areas of Hamilton after Earnock, but it appears Earnock is a field on an old estate now.
What does this have to do with poetry, you ask?
Well, in my research to find out more about this missing town, I found a poem that the poet wrote using the dialect from the area. It is really cool! You should go read it just to try and sound it out. It’s fun just to read it out loud!
http://www.poetryofscotland.co.uk/Other/inmemoryofearnockbing.php
Here is a small section that I stole from the website, but
for all I know I could be related to this fellow.
Dear Earnock bing where ur ye noo
Wher’ever did ye go
Scattered to the winds, ah think
Ah’ ken ah miss ye so.
Wher’ever did ye go
Scattered to the winds, ah think
Ah’ ken ah miss ye so.
Oh Earnock bing my Everest,
It's time to say fareweel
Ah wont forget ye ever
Fareweel! Fareweel! Fareweel!!!
It's time to say fareweel
Ah wont forget ye ever
Fareweel! Fareweel! Fareweel!!!
Pretty cool, huh?
Mr. Davidson,
ReplyDeleteIn class we talk a lot about how diction influences a poem. I went to the website you mentioned and as I read the poem I realized that it actually is a Scottish poem and not just written as if it were. However, this got me thinking about the ambiguity the poem potentially has. As I read it as an American, I thought the Scottish diction was being used simply to create a feeling of the Scottish countryside that any reader could understand. Looking at it from a Scottish perspective, written by a Scot, the poem takes on an almost entirely different meaning and they're able to look past the diction and take out the deeper meaning the poem may have. Anyway, the reason I mention all this is to ask you if you ever think about your word choice that carefully? And if you do, do you consider the way the reader might interpret it, or do you only consider the words in the context you intend them? Branching off of that question, do you ever consider the work you write as the reader may understand it or do you just write it?