QUILLFYRE’S #OULIPOST 8 BEAU PRESENT

This constraint is also known as Beautiful Inlaw.

Select a name from one of your newspaper articles, famous or not. Compose a poem using only words that can be made from the letters in that person’s name. For example, if you selected “John Travolta,” you may only use words that can be made from the letters A, J, H, L, N, O, R, T and V.

The use of web-based tools is highly encouraged to help uncover different words that can be made from your letters of choice. One tool you might consider is the Scrabble Word Finder.

Having struggled earlier on with trying to lipogram words into a poem without using any vowel but U, my eye was caught immediately by a name of the sports page, Craig Anderson, who plays goal for the Ottawa Senators. However, two articles later I still ended up with a very short poem. So many nice words that wanted a “T” or a “G”. I wasn’t left with very many “meaty” words, due to the constraint of selecting from the newspaper, of course. Few of the wonderful words Scrabble Word Finder provided were included. I used Doug Luman’s lipogram generator, as I have had problems with the various tools including his beau present, but the lipogram provided me with a usable base, all I had to do was eliminate the straggler words that didn’t fit my selected letters.

English: Spartacat, official mascot of the Ottawa Senators. Note that the picture has been cropped from original. Français : Spartacat, macotte officielle des Sénateurs d’Ottawa. L’image a été recadrée à partir de l’originale (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here is the list of words I was able to use:

Craig car Canadian came ion can can can Consider can rear road round Red Red received received remain rain right rear road round Red Red received received rain a and and and and and an a and a and a a and a and a and and a and As a and a a and and are a a a a and a and and a and and and and and an a and a and a a and a and a and and a and As a and a a and and are a a a a and a and and and in in In in in is is in I is I I I is I ice in in in a and and and and and an a and a and a a and a and a need no no need no do do do one one end rear road Red Red received received rear road round Red Red received received season see season so so season second season said season said season said season s ions said ion season says s season season said on order on on need no need no no

second article: is son, a in an in in and and son, red and
s is a as in 1,000 in a 27 in residence
’s is and noses as and 35 cries. One . dance, a 21-

The resulting poem:

Second Season Canadian Can-Can

Consider Canadian second season rain
round craigs, on rear roads.

Ice can remain in residence
on 1000 red noses,

in 35 cries,
and as one dance.

Carol A. Stephen
April 8, 2014

SOURCES:

Warren, Ken, Anderson tries to look ahead, not back at the lost season Ottawa Citizen, April 8, 2014, (B1)
Rayner, Gordon, Prince George begins his royal duty in New Zealand, Ottawa Citizen April 8 print edition (A6 from UK Telegraph story)