[New-Poetry] Magic Spells (word squares)

[Skip Fox]

Can't remember where I saw with the Latin information. That's pretty
standard. I saw the 6 word one in _Jess_, the book of art by Jess Collins,
and he gives the source at a 1859 _Notes & Queries_ piece by W. W. titled
"Squaring the Circle" (July 2, p. 8). When I mentioned them to Christin Bok,
it seemed as though he knew much about them. (Did he do a Rubric's Cube
instillation with one?) 

 

Tried to write one this morning which might work well as asking blessings on
this dwelling, but didn't do so well:

 

STOP

TIME

0MEN

PENT

 

Some earlier ones:

 

time  alba  code  epos

Isis  loam  open  pine

miss  bade  dead  once

esse  amen  ends  seen

 

(I kind of like the last one. Sort of an ubi sunt, right?)

 

You can do 4-letter magic spells in your head (laying awake at night, for
instance). Maybe someone really sharp can do 5- or 6-letter ones in this
fashion. I can't do 6-letter ones at all, but I hear someone did an
11-letter one. (Or, perhaps, that they were working on it.)

 

Someone who is trilingual or bilingual would really be able to tear these
up.

 

style

trout

youth

lutea

Ethan

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of Suzanne Burns
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 9:21 AM
To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp,Views
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Magic Spells (word squares)

 

Whoooooooaaaah!

I want to dig up more of these!  I see a calligraphy project.  Any sources?

Thanks!

Suzanne





On 3/12/07, Skip Fox <skip at louisiana.edu> wrote:

Have you ever tried this? Here's a beautiful one from mid-19th cent.: 

CIRCLE
ICARUS
RAREST
CREATE
LUSTER
ESTEEM

I've not done any with six letters, but here's a 5-letter spell that erases
itself:

ERASE
RARER
ARENA
SENDS
ERASE

(erase around all sides)

Some groupings are rather interesting:

mind
idea
nest
data

Story goes that many of these were done in Latin with religious
terms/ideas/elements and used by Romans and others for luck and fortune by 
placing the "spell" 9n a notable place like outside their front gate.

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-- 
"I will take the Ring to Mordor...though...I do not know the way." 

Frodo Baggins, Fellowship of the Ring 

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