Frontier Poetry
Euphonics: A Poet's Dictionary of Sounds
Euphonics: A Poet's Dictionary of Sounds
John Michell
84pp,illus by Merrily Harpur
ISBN: 978-0-9508701-6-8 £5.95
John Michell is an artist,idealist and author of many books, including 'The
View over Atlantis', 'The Dimensions of Paradise' and other works on ancient
science and learning. His devotion to Plato's philosophy, and the humorous
melancholy in his 'Megalithomania',
'Eccentric Lives & Peculiar Notions' etc.,
find their natural meeting point in this book.
Euphonics is about the natural meanings of sounds and their influence
in the formation of words and languages. The subject was first raised in Plato's
Cratylus, where Socrates adjudicates in a debate about the significance of
names, whether they are chosen at random or whether they are in some way appropriate
to the objects they are applied to. Plato's play is full of puns and jokes
which no one now can understand, but the general imolication is that the subject
should be dealt with humour. So, after an introductory essay, there follows
the dictionary, with entries for distinctive sounds, with examples and the
author's own rhyming verse. These are illustrated by Merrily Harpur, whose
cartoons are seen in the Telegraph, Guardian and Private Eye.
Euphonics is a required study for magicians, orators, lovers
and
all who use words for purposes of enchantment. Here are revealed the bullying,
bombastic
tendencies of the sound B, the deadly effects of D, the power of O to overawe,
of T to tease, of N to negate, Z to send people to sleep, and so on through
the sonic alphabet. Euphonics widens the imagination, and may increase one's
influence in this world, but here it is introduced as a source of humour and
constant fascination of the curious minded.
The author, the most intelligent and charming visionary of the era, died recently 24th April, 2009
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Rights: © John Michell & Merrily Harpur >
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