Quiz Guy John Chaneski brings a game of schmoetry—as in, famous lines of poetry where most of the words are replaced with other words that rhyme. For example, “Prose is a nose is a hose is a pose” is a schmoetic take on what famous poem? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Schmoetry Word Game”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Martha Barnette.
And I’m Grant Barrett.
And who is that handsome gentleman?
It’s John Chaneski from New York City.
Is there a handsome gentleman standing behind me?
Yeah.
Oh, wait.
Oh, it’s me.
You’re so nice.
The quiz.
Just hand it to you and you can do it.
That’s me.
Thank you, Grant.
Hi, Martha.
When I met my wife, poet Jennifer Michael Hecht, I learned a lot more about poetry than I knew before.
I mean, I knew enough to know that rhyme is just one of many tools in a poet’s arsenal and that it doesn’t define poetry like some people think.
But I’m not a poet.
I’m a puzzler.
So I use rhyme to puzzle.
I call this quiz schmoetry.
For example, here’s a famous line of poetry where every word has been replaced with a word that rhymes with it.
Coo fair his lumen, do relive malign.
Can you guess what that is?
Oh, wow.
To err is human, to forgive divine.
Yes, that’s it.
Very nice.
That’s from an essay on criticism by Alexander Pope, and you guys got that.
Now, how many other famous lines of poetry can you recognize?
Oh, Lord.
None?
Yes, we’ll see.
Now, I’ve left most of the thes and the ands.
I left those alone.
Okay.
Occasionally so.
Oh, good.
All right.
Prose is a nose, is a hose, is a pose.
Thank you, Gertrude.
Yes, give them, tell them what it is.
Rose is a rose is a rose.
Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
Did I not have enough roses in there?
I think you were about two roses short, actually.
That’s from Sacred Emily by Gertrude Stein.
The wild is bother of the van.
The wild is bother of the van.
The child is father of the man.
Yes, that’s it.
I can give you a second if you want to try to say,
Oh, that’s…
I don’t know who it is.
That’s William Wordsworth.
My heart leaps up when I behold.
There you go.
I’ll give you that.
How about this one?
And tiles to throw adore my bleep.
Thank you, Robert.
And miles to go before I sleep, Robert.
Yes, very good.
Do you know the name of the poem?
Stopping by the woods.
On a snowy evening?
Yes, stopping by woods on a snowy evening by Robert Frost.
Very good.
How about pot with a gang cut a shrimper?
What?
Pot with a gang cut a shrimper.
Right.
Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
But a whimper.
Right.
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Anybody know who the poet is?
T.S. Eliot.
T.S. Eliot.
The hollow men.
Yes.
Very good.
Stuffed men.
Here’s another one.
Now blue, I shove brie, pet me, mount the days.
Count the days is the last part.
No?
Count the…
Rays?
Ways.
I don’t know.
Yeah.
Ways is right.
Let me count the ways.
What famous line ends count the ways from a poem?
Let me.
It’s I love thee.
How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.
That’s it.
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Sounds from the Portuguese number 43.
Okay, I’m just going down to the last one.
Rather we clothes, suds, style thee clay.
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
Yes, very good.
That’s from Robert Herrick’s To the Virgins to Make Much of Time.
Yes.
Thank you, guys.
You were fantastic.
Yeah, sure.
It’s tough.
We’ve got laundry to do, huh?
Yeah.
Thanks, John.
Have a great day.
Sure.
We’ll speak to you next week, buddy.
See you then.
Bye, John.
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