O is for Onomatopoeia

Do you have any words that you just like the sound of? That you find fun to say? Onomatopoeia is one of those words for me. Maybe it's all the vowel sounds or the way it trips along off the tongue with those short syllables. Or maybe I just like the concept of what onomatopoeia represents--a word that is defined by the sound it makes, such as thud, cluck, or woof.

What's interesting is the sounds for different things are different in different languages. It we hear a bell clang, whether it is here, in Japan, or Germany, theoretically all of our words for that sound should be the same or at least similar. But it doesn't usually work out that way. For example, here are a few examples of what a dog says in different languages:

US--ruff-ruff, woof-woof, arf-arf, or for a little dog--yip-yip, yap-yap.
Albanian--ham-ham
Burmese--woke-woke
Hindi--bow-bow
Lebanese--haw-haw
Polish--hau-hau

So there's quite a variety in just those few examples, and we can't even agree on the sound in our own language. But do you see the one thing they have in common? The dog always barks twice.

Onomatopoeia is also a device that can be used quite effectively in literature, especially poetry. I think no one did this better than Edgar Allan Poe. So in honor of National Poetry Month, here is his most famous poem using onomatopoeia.

The Bells       

Hear the sledges with the bells-
                  Silver bells!
  What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
          How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
              In the icy air of night!
          While the stars that oversprinkle
          All the heavens, seem to twinkle
            With a crystalline delight;
                Keeping time, time, time,
            In a sort of Runic rhyme,
  To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
            From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
                  Bells, bells, bells-
  From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

                        II

          Hear the mellow wedding bells,
                  Golden bells!
  What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
          Through the balmy air of night
          How they ring out their delight!
            From the molten-golden notes,
                  And an in tune,
            What a liquid ditty floats
  To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
                  On the moon!
          Oh, from out the sounding cells,
  What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
                  How it swells!
                  How it dwells
            On the Future! how it tells
            Of the rapture that impels
          To the swinging and the ringing
            Of the bells, bells, bells,
          Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
                  Bells, bells, bells-
  To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

                        III

          Hear the loud alarum bells-
                  Brazen bells!
  What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
          In the startled ear of night
        How they scream out their affright!
          Too much horrified to speak,
          They can only shriek, shriek,
                  Out of tune,
  In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
  In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
          Leaping higher, higher, higher,
            With a desperate desire,
          And a resolute endeavor,
          Now- now to sit or never,
        By the side of the pale-faced moon.
          Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
          What a tale their terror tells
                  Of Despair!
        How they clang, and clash, and roar!
        What a horror they outpour
      On the bosom of the palpitating air!
          Yet the ear it fully knows,
                  By the twanging,
                  And the clanging,
          How the danger ebbs and flows:
          Yet the ear distinctly tells,
                  In the jangling,
                  And the wrangling,
          How the danger sinks and swells,
  By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-
                  Of the bells-
          Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
                Bells, bells, bells-
      In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

                        IV

          Hear the tolling of the bells-
                  Iron Bells!
  What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
          In the silence of the night,
          How we shiver with affright
    At the melancholy menace of their tone!
          For every sound that floats
          From the rust within their throats
                    Is a groan.
          And the people- ah, the people-
          They that dwell up in the steeple,
                  All Alone
          And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
            In that muffled monotone,
          Feel a glory in so rolling
            On the human heart a stone-
          They are neither man nor woman-
          They are neither brute nor human-
                  They are Ghouls:
            And their king it is who tolls;
            And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
                  Rolls
              A paean from the bells!
          And his merry bosom swells
            With the paean of the bells!
          And he dances, and he yells;
          Keeping time, time, time,
          In a sort of Runic rhyme,
            To the paean of the bells-
                  Of the bells:
          Keeping time, time, time,
          In a sort of Runic rhyme,
            To the throbbing of the bells-
          Of the bells, bells, bells-
            To the sobbing of the bells;
          Keeping time, time, time,
            As he knells, knells, knells,
          In a happy Runic rhyme,
            To the rolling of the bells-
          Of the bells, bells, bells:
            To the tolling of the bells,
          Of the bells, bells, bells, bells-
            Bells, bells, bells-
    To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

This is only one of the many versions (8 at least)  that have slipped into the world. Poe adapted it a number of times but this is the most common..The original idea for The Bells, is believed to have been given to Poe by his friend, Mrs Shew. An earlier draft, (titled, The Bells, By Mrs. M. A. Shew.) Contained only two stanzas, totalling seventeen lines and read..

N is for a New Show Everyday

My sons, Wally and Theo, lived their first years in Houston where the weather was either hot and humid or cold and rainy (with a little bit of just right thrown in). Meaning they really never experienced four seasons. Snow was an oddity as was the burst of growth that happens every spring in a distinct, four-season climate. So they were mesmerized by these changes when we moved to Maryland. Their first spring here, they would come home from school every day and say, "Let's go see what we can find in the yard. " We would then scour our two acre yard that backed up to pasture and woods to see what we could find. The boys were constantly amazed by how much things would change from day to day. And so was I since I had been away from four seasons for 15 years myself.

And year after year, spring does it again--puts on a new show every day.

Here's the show I saw recently in my yard.

The grape hyacinths have started to bloom. These should last for a while because there are still several budding stalks hidden in the leaves.

We have two pear trees. This one is loaded with blooms while the other one is sparse. These blooms suggest that there's hope we will get a few more pears than last year when we got only two from both trees.

Aunt Martha and Uncle Billy gave me some red twig dogwood branches to start my own shrubs. So far, so good. I hope they continue to grow.

Leaves are joining the blossoms on the ornamental plum tree.

And also on the forsythia bushes.

The crabapple trees are budding.

As are the dogwoods.

The nandinas don't show much activity yet. You can tell that birds don't like nandina berries.

The quince bush is in full bloom. The bush was a very straggly with only a couple of blooms when we were first here. We trimmed it up to give it one more chance before we removed it and the bush must have know what we were thinking. :)

The plants aren't the only things that have been busy.
This bluebird nest is almost done. 

M is for Monday Musings

Here I am halfway through this A-Z challenge and I'm finding it as difficult as always. As per usual, I'm doing this in a reactive way, instead of a proactive way. In sort of a panic, so to speak. Posting goes something like this.

What's the letter for today? What can I write? My mind starts running through different words beginning with that letter. I even use a speller/divider book that was my mother's to read lists of words that begin with the letter. I write down a few words that might have some possibilities. However, my mind is usually blank as I stare at the list of words, so if anyone is around, I offer to let them be a guest blogger for the day. I've never gotten anyone to take me up on that offer, but they do offer suggestions for a relevant blog post. I get some interesting ideas from that, but most of them would take more time to develop than I have.

Along about this point, I realize how tired I am and want nothing more than to go do something else. And I usually do. I'd like to say that I then go and accomplish some of the other more important every day things that need to be done, but sometimes I just go watch TV and pet the cats.

I finally decide on something to write about and start doing research. I search the internet for information like for idioms that begin with I.  I search my blog for posts that may have related to the topic in the past and think about how much of the old material I should repeat. I, also, think about a personal experience to add to the topic where I have to find the balance of being meaningful, but not revealing too much information about myself or my family for privacy reasons.

And then I finally start writing. Sometimes it flows, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes, I will write the post in one sitting and but usually I don't. If I don't, it's commonly because I don't have the mental energy to write a cohesive post. That's when I walk away again.

Eventually, I start writing and complete my text. Then it's time to find some pictures. Occasionally, I can take one right then and insert it into the post or I can use one from the past. At times this is from my blog and at other times it is from the thousands of picture files on the computer.

Then, after some proofreading, I hit publish! And that's that. Except for when I keep finding mistakes during my proofreading until I eventually give up or when Blogger gets persnickety and the spacing is way off. And that usually takes a long, aggravating time to correct.

I'm guessing that you never knew that my simple little posts were so laborious for me to write. Remind me again why I do this A-Z challenge every year? :)

L is for Librariies

My love affair with libraries began when I was very young. While reading was important in my family, there was no money to buy books, so naturally the library was the place where we got them. My first library was in an old storefront that had two rooms and was a short walk from our house. My sisters and I often walked there together.

I can remember going to the library before I was old enough to go to school when Mrs. Simon and Mrs. Garrett were the librarians. I thought they were about the nicest people I'd ever met. At that point in time, my signature was rather sprawling even for just my first name and they let me use the entire card to sign out a book. I felt very important when I did that.

The town library continued to be important after I went to school. Because of funding problems, my school did not have a library. Each teacher had a small bookcase in the back of their room and that's where we got our school library books. However by 8th grade, the school finally built a library and I got to help set it up and work in it. Handling all of those brand new books was great.

As time went on, I had less time for leisure reading. The high school teachers had books for us to read as part of the curriculum and those took up much of my time. However, the town library was still an important part of my high school years. Every Monday night kids would meet at the library to do their homework. The gathering was more social than academic and it was great for me because this was a place I could meet with the popular kids that was acceptable. (It seemed that the popular kids were not usually at the library, but at a drinking party somewhere--not something I was interested in.)

During my college years, I was consumed with classes, and libraries faded to the background except for an occasional study session or to find a book to read in the summer. During this time, a new library was built in my hometown. The building was beautiful with beamed ceilings and fireplaces and that's where Ward and I had our wedding reception. Decades later, that library is still the place for many events in the town.

In the years to follow, Ward and I spent a lot of time in libraries with Wally and Theo. They were always excited by the limitless supply of books as were Ward and I. Then one day at a soccer game, one of the moms said that she was leaving her job at the library and a couple of weeks later, I had taken her place. Twelve years later, I'm still there and I'm happy.

I Love Libraries.

Other Random Library Thoughts

Apparently, there is not a limitless supple of books in every library because Ward read every single book in his junior high library.

The hardest part of my job is not being able to spend all of the time I want to perusing books I come across. They are not paying me to browse the collection all day long. Sigh.

When I first started working at the library, Wally and Theo would quiz me about what was the most interesting book I had handled that day. Everyone concluded that there is a book about most everything.

K is for Kindness

Our neighbor is helping Ward install a new mailbox post. An act of kindness.

I think people are inherently kind. It's in our DNA because it helped our chances of survival at one point in time. If we were kind, we would be more likely to be included as part of the group that provided food, shelter, and protection.

Oh, there are times when someone is having a bad day when they aren't showing their kinder side, but I think that is more the exception than the rule. To prove this point, I asked a few people for examples of little acts of kindness that they had done or had had done for them recently. At first some weren't sure they had anything to say, but with more thought, they had a lot to say. I think this means that kind acts are so much a part of our everyday life that it takes a minute for us to remember them. Here are a few of the examples I got. (For consistency, I am writing all of these as if the person were the recipient of the kindness.)

--I was getting ready for my first high school dance and was having a problem tying my tie. My neighbor helped me tie it.

--I had been having some difficult days at work and one of my coworkers showed up with balloons to brighten my mood.

--I was stretching to reach something off the top shelf at the grocery store and a stranger helped me reach it.

--I had been to an auction and a stranger helped me carry my purchases to my car.

--I had my baby in a backpack and his shoes fell off. A stranger jumped in and helped me pick them up and then volunteered to carry some of my other things.

--I was having problems with my homework and my neighbor sat down with me and figured out the whole lesson.

--I hadn't been feeling well for a while and a friend brought a meal to me and did the errands I needed done.

--I had been feeling really down since my husband died, and a friend called.We had a long talk and I felt much better when we were done.

--I couldn't find a quarter to get a shopping cart at Aldi's one day and a stranger gave me one.

--I asked the neighbor to borrow a tool for some plumbing I was doing and he not only lent me the tool, he helped me with the whole job of installing the hot water heater.

--I got a book that I had mentioned once that I would like to have from a friend completely as a surprise.

--"I had been staying with friends for a couple of months while I was recovering from a knee operation. Yesterday I packed up all my stuff drove back to my house. One of the friends with whom I was staying, packed some cookies and raspberries in a container and hid it in my car. This morning when I was thinking, "Woe is me, I have no food in my house! What shall I eat for breakfast?" I discovered the wonderful gift. There has rarely been a finer breakfast than chocolate chip cookies with raspberries."

--There is a remarkable woman and her family who live on my street. The woman is battling an aggressive form of cancer. As a thank you to the neighbors for all of our support, they threw a block party. The party was an example of great cooperation and kindness for all involved.

--I was at a market with my mom and I was really bored. A big guy (teenager) organized a game of tag for us. It was a lot of fun.

Yellowstone National Park

And now an example of my own. A couple of years ago, Ward and I were vacationing in Yellowstone National Park. Besides enjoying the breathtaking scenery, we noted what a good mood everyone was in. Even in the crowded areas, there was no jostling for the best vantage point or annoyance with the line for the bathroom. This good mood extended to helping each other when people were trying to get a picture of their family or themselves with beautiful scenery behind them. In one of these spots, I was trying to get a picture of Ward with a waterfall behind him when a young man offered to take our picture together. We gladly agreed. After he had gotten a couple of pictures, a woman offered to take a picture of our whole family and insisted that the young man join us in the picture. At that point, it was just easier for him to join us than try to explain what was really going on. So we got a nice picture of ourselves with a kind young man who was our "son" for that time. We all smiled as one kind act led to another--with a twist.

Have you done any random acts of kindness recently or had any done for you?

This is an updated version of a post I did several years ago. Kindness seemed like a good topic to visit again.