Irish Jesuit Province
Clavis Acrostica. A Key to "Dublin Acrostics". VSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 25, No. 289 (Jul., 1897), pp. 375-377Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20499150 .
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C-lavis Acrostica. 375
change comes-but I remember so well feeling as if the sunshine, that was flooding the garden was flooding my soul as well; and as if the blackbird, still joyously singing among the pear blossoms,
was no longer suggesting but was now echoing the thankfulness welling up in my heart.
From the break of morn
Herein the blackbird is God's courtier,
His gold tongue ever a-stir
Piping and praising
On his beaked horn,
To do his Seigneur duty. *
The fragrance of the newly-opened flower-buds filled the air, and the jonquils and narcissi bloomed, white and lovely, about the lawn with its tender greenness and drifts of daisies; the delicate snow-wreaths of the cherry blossoms lay against the soft blueness of the sky, and from every side came the warbling of the birds. But
my blackbird's voice rose high and clear above the rest, and I shall never hear his song without feelings of gratitude and affections nor shall I 'bver forget the morning when, listening to his sweet singing, hope came back to me.
. 1H.
CLAYIS ACROSTICA.
A KEY TO " DUBLIN ACROSTICS."
V.
J. W. A. has succeeded in guessing both the uprights and
lights of Nos. 7 and 8, except that Atalanta was a faster maid than
Andromeda, and Rembrandt did not end in ruin. See the full solutions a little further on.
P. S. D. has solved No. 8 correctly, except that the im
provident do not sutter " punishment " but go to " pot."
0. T. W. is right all through, except in suggesting "I tempest" in place of " trumpet" and "post-obit " as the goal of im
providence-both very meritorious failures, if failures. Mr. Reeves himself gave "astrologer" as the second light of No. 8;
* ?The Trees," by Alice Furlong.
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376 The Irish Monthly.
but I have it corrected into " augur " in the handwriting of the
author of the acrostic, Mr. Justice O'Hagan. The answer to No. 7 is tartan. Mr. Reeves, Q.C., indicates
very tersely and ingeniously its constituent parts tar and tan, and then in the third place tartan. Thus, tan is spread before a house
where some one is sick, to subdue the noise of the cars passing; and this is expressed cryptically and concisely by the line, " Hoof's sound is lost." The first of the lights is trumpet, beginning and ending with the first letters of tar and tan. The second is the swift-ru-nning maiden Atalanta, concerning whom some may like to consult Lempriere's Classical Dictionary or some such book.
The last of the three lights is certainly not very enlightening. How does " Rembrandt's last " begin with R and end with N ?
Rembrandt was a baptismal name only; the painter used the initials R. H. for " Rembrandt Harmenszon," that is, son of
Harmen; but he is often known by the local affix Rembrandt van Rijn, " by the Rhine," living on Rhineside. Is he called " poor "
because he was once a bankrupt ? When Mr. Reeves had to
choose a word beginning with R and ending with N, he certainly did not give much help to the solvers of his Double Acrostic.
No. 8 is another example of Judge O'Hagan's wonderful skill in versification and mystification. Who else could make so much out of pantry ? First, the god Pan is finely described in eight
lines; and then there is a sudden transition to "pan" spelled with a small p-namely the fr5ying-pan. The second acrostic word is try
" A spell-word known
To all who scale achievement's throne."
If we did not know that the whole is " pantry," we should be
greatly puzzled by this statement: " My all hath many a deep recess
Where treasures lie in uselessness
Until thy glowing circle warms
Their plastic elemental forms,"
that is, until the pan has cooked the steak or the pudding. The three lights which begin and end respectively with p and t, with a and r, and with n and y, are "c pot," " augur," "necromancy." Remembering that a thriftless man goes to pot, could these three words be more ingeniously adumbrated than by the following triplet ?
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Clavis Acrostica. 377
I am of all improvidence the goal.
Can I the page of destiny unroll?
Or wizard spell evoke the parted soul?"
We next leave for a month in their subtle obscurity No. 9 and No. 10 of this series. The signature of the first stands for Mr. George B. Thompson; and we know already who " 0 is.
No. 9.
The knight rides on in armour dight,
His casque at saddle-bow,
The steed returns, but not the knight,
My first has laid him low.
I ride the stream, all gaily clad,
With pluines and silken garb,
And bear, though seeming light and glad,
Sure death upon my barb.
1. The cottier loves my piping lay.
2. The tawny Hindoo's dye.
3. Of fickle love and counted gay.
4. Bad play's apology. T.
No. 10.
Blest be the woodland way,
And the well which the alders bide,
And the steed which I reined that day
To drink in the warm noontide.
My steed, he drank of the well,
But a dearer draught was mine;
'Twas my second bestowed the spell
That flushed in my v-eins like wine.
Though my first, in those days as now,
Belonged to my practised tongue,
Yet there the unspoken vow
In formless accents hung.
But oft as again we stole
To meetings more fond and free,
The first far glimpse of my whole
Was fever and trance to me.
l. A gushing thing.
2. I close a spring.
3. Admire my wing.
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