Sunday, March 9, 2008

Experiment involving ladies, leopards and a juniper tree


Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper tree in the cool of the day
– T. S. Eliot

And now four Blumfeld variations, to be accompanied by lute and shawm:
Leopard: three white ladies sat under a juniper tree in the cool of the day
Juniper: three white days sat under a leopard tree in the cool of the ladies
Cool tree: three juniper trees sat under a leopard in the white of the day
Cool ladies: a juniper tree sat under the leopard in three whites of the day
Posted in honor of Sunday Scribblings #101 - The Experiment as an experiment in/with/on modernist poetry.

T. S. Eliot, when asked the meaning of the line 'Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper tree in the cool of the day...' from Ash Wednesday (1927), said "It means 'Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper tree in the cool of the day...'".

Questions as to the meaning of the Blumfeld variations are welcome.

Photo courtesy of Snow Leopard Trust, an organization that has been helping to save the Asian snow leopard for 25 years.

2 comments:

Tumblewords: said...

Dead on. I have no questions. Nor, do I have answers. But I did laugh. Out loud. BTW - the photo and the link are wonderful.

World So Wide said...

Thank you very much, Sue. Glad I made you laugh!