Thursday, November 01, 2007

The Walrus and the Carp in Tar


"The tie mask gum,"the wall russet,

"Toot alcove man knee thinks

Of shoo- sand-gyps-ant- ceiling-whacks
Shove cab ages-ant kinks

Of white thus see yes boy lean ha-
Tan weather piks half winks"


No, I haven't lost my mind. It's a modegreen.
A mondegreen is misheard (or deliberatly scrambled) speech or lyrics.

The old song "Mairzy Doats" (Mares eat oats, get it??) is an example.
When read aloud, "the tie mask gum..." is phonetically similar to Lewis Carol's original:

"The time has come," the Walrus said,

"To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings."






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