query on poetic figure

[Neal Whitman]

The term I learned for this is hudibrastic rhyme. Tom Lehrer is a master at
it. Some of my favorites are from just one song ("Smut"):

    Give me smut and nothing but!
    A dirty novel I can't shut
    If it's uncut
    And unsubt-
    le.

    As the judge remarked the day that he acquitted my Aunt Hortense,
    To be smut it must be ut-
    terly without redeeming social importance.
    Por-
    nographic pictures I adore.
    Indecent magazines galore...

Lehrer's most audacious example IMO is from "We Will All Go Together When We
Go":

    When you attend a funeral,
    It is sad to think that sooner o(r) l-
    ater those you love will do the same for you.
    And you may have thought it tragic,
    Not to mention other adjec-
    tives to think of all the weeping they will do.

-Neal

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arnold Zwicky" <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2010 11:43 PM
Subject: query on poetic figure


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      query on poetic figure
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> i feel really stupid asking this, but at the moment i can't recall the
> name of the well-known poetic figure in which a word is split between two
> lines.  it's often done in songs, to get a rhyme or to set up a temporary
> ambiguity ("She got pinched in the As / Tor Bar", "Which only goes to show
> why I'm a broad / Shouldered guy"), but it can also be done to throw
> emphasis on the material at the end of the first line or the material at
> the beginning of the second, or for other reasons, as in the mini-poem i
> posted here:
>
> http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/mini-poem/
>
> where
>
>  tetra
>    metrical
>
> and
>
>  trocha
>    icity
>
> are both split, for, well, metrical reasons.
>
> surprisingly hard to search for if you don't have a clue about the term.
>
> arnold
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org