May 2015

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

The Meaning of Scar

Scar

A mark left on the skin where a
Burn or wound has had its way
And hasn't healed completely they say
Is a scar but also true
A steep high cliff is something you
Also might refer to in that way...

And if you did climb up that scar
And fall the ground below might scar
You thus proving it's a verb as well
But I doubt that knowledge would
Do you any ounce of good
After falling off a cliff somehow...

By Kerin Gedge

Click HERE to search The Vocabuverse by Letter

The Atomic Symbol Be

Be

Still when I was very young
I showed my homework to my mum
A book of simple words I had to learn,
Things were going well until
She yelped a thrilling chilling shrill
Which may have caused our neighbours some concern!

And I knew what exactly
It was, the letters 'B' and 'e',
She saw them typed in bold upon the page,
She said, "My dear those letters there
Are there to see for me to share
A thing I learned myself when at your age!"

She said, "It's for Beryllium"
I said to her, "I don't care mum."
But regardless she was adamant
To make my homework more a chore,
"Its atomic number's four!"
She said of this chemical element.

"Curiously it is made..."
She was like a live grenade,
"Through stellar nucleosynthesis
Making it a short lived thing,
It's not really a common thing..."
I felt like I was trapped under hypnosis!

"Another too that's divalent,
Meaning that this element
Occurs naturally only when
With other elements it joins
In combination and conjoins
In minerals..." My wits were at their end.

But she went in for the kill
Telling me about beryl
Found in certain notable gemstones
But by itself this element
Is steel grey, but petulant
I wished that she would just leave me alone!

"It's strong and doesn't weigh a lot.."
She went on with a gallant trot,
"...although it is also a little brittle.."
I wondered how could it be true
To be both strong and brittle too,
Though my interest was brief and fickle!

"This alkaline earth metal can
improve the strength of soda cans
When added to aluminium
Or copper, iron, nickel too
Tools won't spark a bit when you
Make them using what? Beryllium!"

I'll admit that for a split
Second or two my mother's fit
Of scientific diatribe got me
Thinking about the qualities
"Flexural rigidity"
And of course "thermal stability"

"Thermal conductivity"
Was one along with density
Were things unique to this beryllium
Making the metal just right
For spaceships and for satellites!
I hid my excitement though from my mum!

Or else she would go on all night
And I would have to face the plight
Of trying to explain to Mrs Meany,
My first grade teacher, why it was
I could not read was all because
My mother misinterpreted be and e!

By Kerin Gedge

Click HERE to search The Vocabuverse by Letter

The Meaning of Clerihew by Peter Grant

The Definition of a Clerihew

Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Tortured his readers mentally:

Biographical poems,

Four lines, never tomes.

By Author Peter Grant of

stinkyandeddie.com

Submit your own Vocabuverse! Click Here!

The Meaning of the Girl's Name Adela

Adela

Adela is thematic
Of one aristocratic
A teutonic name fashionable

To the old Victorians,
According to historians,
Who wanted to convey someone noble.

By Kerin Gedge

Click HERE to search The Vocabuverse by Letter

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

The Meaning of Admonish

Admonish

If you want to tell someone
Off for something that they've done
In a gentle but also firm way,
The scolding that you are giving
Is of course admonishing
Although it's also true that the word may

Be used when you are warning
Advising even cautioning
Someone against something to avoid,
As in, "Dear I think it's best
You burn or throw away that vest,
It's ghastly and leaves me feeling annoyed!"

By Kerin Gedge

Click HERE to search The Vocabuverse by Letter

The Meaning of Feline

Feline

There is a certain creature that
Has destroyed many a mat
Inside my house and likes to play with twine
Or anything that's made of string
She will claim it as her thing,
Most of what she "owns" is in fact mine!

She wonders why I get annoyed
When the mouse she has enjoyed
Is left a mess upon my kitchen floor,
Or when she will incessantly
Meow and scratch unpleasantly
Outside for me to come open the door...

But when from my repose I rise
To ope the door she wins the prize
For being a pain by changing then her mind
And coming back when I sit down
For another jarring round
Of "Let me in!" and will not be declined!

She will nag me earnestly
For food until I finally
Give in to her demands but when I do
She sniffs at it and walks away
To save it for another day
And has a look that says, "I so own you!"

And when I seek affection she
Will not have a bar of me
I pick her up only to get denied,
But when she wants a cuddle she
Expects to get one from me free
Despite the fact my hands are occupied!

She starts the evening on my bed
Only to end up on my head
Or greet me with her tail-end sometimes,
She treats me like I am her slave
I should have bought a dog to save
Me from belonging to a feline!

By Kerin Gedge

Click HERE to search The Vocabuverse by Letter

The Meaning of Timeous by Peter Grant

The Definition of Timeous

“A stitch in time saves nine,” is heard,

But takes too long to say.

TIMEOUS is a quicker way

To lend a timely word.

By Author Peter Grant of

stinkyandeddie.com

Submit your own Vocabuverse! Click Here!

Monday, May 25, 2015

The Meaning of Corvine

Corvine

Outside doing outdoor things
I removed my wedding ring
To keep it safe but later to my woe
I found it was not where I left
It thus leaving me bereft
And lamenting the cruelty of crows.

It seemed this priceless ring of mine
Was now the thing of a corvine
Criminal, a raven or magpie!
One I could not easily
Pursue because someone like me
Can not apprehend a thief that flies!

By Kerin Gedge

Click HERE to search The Vocabuverse by Letter

The Meaning of the Boy's Name Adam

Adam

There is an ancient story in
The Bible of the origin
Of the human race in days long past
It's said that God himself did form
A man from clay and breathed his warm
Breath, a gentle life imparting blast...

And so arose the man whose name
In Hebrew means no less the same
As "man" which curiously found it's birth
From another of that tongue
"Adamah" which unlike its son
Fits into the meaning of "red earth."

By Kerin Gedge

Click HERE to search The Vocabuverse by Letter

Saturday, May 23, 2015

The Atomic Symbol Li

Lithium

I think it was when I was five
When mum and I went for a drive
To the shops to buy something for tea,
As was normal for me then
I passed the time with pad and pen
Doodling and scribbling expertly...

I must have been thinking out loud
For randomly I had endowed
The paper with some random letters I
Had learned in school the week just gone
Writing them so very wrong
But speaking loudly L followed by I

To which my mum said, "What's that son?
You want to know another one?
Goodness but you are so curious!
L and I can only be
For lithium that has but three
Protons in its atom's nucleus!

"The word for this soft element
Comes from those great eloquent
People that we call the Ancient Greeks..."
And despite my morbid groan
She said, "Lithos is Greek for stone..."
Why oh why was my mum such a geek?

"And did you know that L and I
Is one of the alkali
Metal groups found in the elements?"
"No I did not know that mum,
But can we speak of something fun?"
I asked but she shared not my sentiments...

"It is the lightest metal too,
And not that dense my son, it's true"
I was trapped inside a vehicle..
"...Being alkali it's flammable,
By that I mean it's burnable..."
I wondered if escape was feasible!

"And lithium when cut open,
So I've heard it being spoken,
Is quite a shiny metal to behold...
But when it touches the moist air
The metal loses quick its flare
From silver gray, to black or so I'm told..."

I whispered there a silent prayer
"Please help me get out of here!"
As "...lithium-6 deuteride..." she said,
"Serves well as a fusion fuel..'
I could almost see her drool,
"...In thermonuclear weapons of dread!"

And although that part was cool
I felt like I was back in school
When she told me of its applications
Like heat resistant glass and things
Like lubricants so things don't cling
"And batteries..." she said with some elation.

And captive to my mum's discourse
I sat there feeling some remorse
Over ever speaking L and I
I wondered if there was a way
That I could feel another way
For I was quite sure that I could cry...

And as if she read my thought
My mother went on to report
That lithium could change the way you feel
I pondered then perhaps I should
Find out if someone my age could
Use it to survive my mother's spiels!

By Kerin Gedge

Click HERE to search The Vocabuverse by Letter

Friday, May 15, 2015

The Meaning and Pronunciation of Dour

Dour

Excuse me if I seem too sour,
Why does power rhyme with flour?
Why should dour rhyme with mower,
Sewer(1) doesn’t rhyme with sewer(2)?
Dour means a gloomy sort,
Humorless and not a sport.
Is he dour just because
English spelling has such flaws?

(1) Pipe with nasty stuff inside.
(2) Works with needle, thread and pride.

By Author Peter Grant of

stinkyandeddie.com