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FamousFirsts
World Poetry Day is March 21
It is a warm spring evening in Cipher, South Decoder. Tim, Hank, K.C., and the rest of the team (including Flynn and Jimmy Blake) are feeling downhearted after their loss at the baseball game. They decide to see what's happening at the local comedy club to cheer themselves up.
Wouldn't you know it? That night the club had been rented by the poetry club.
"Poetry?" Tim complained, "that doesn't sound like much fun!"
Eddie, one of the poetry club members, was serving as bouncer, even though poetry fans aren't known to be all that rowdy. He explained, "It'll be a hoot. There will be a reading of famous poems - some serious, and some humorous. Then there will be a limerick writing contest. First prize is a trip to Nantucket."
"Let's give it a try, guys," said Hank. As the others nodded dubiously, Hank started toward the entrance.
"Hold on there, friend," said Eddie, "you can't enter without one of the pass phrases."
The bewildered look on Hank's face was mirrored on the others' faces. Eddie took a piece of paper out of the pocket of his sports jacket. "I'll help you out. This is my shorthand list of the acceptable pass phrases. They are all first lines of famous poems. Each of you that solves one can go on in."
Flynn took the sheet and quickly perused it. "I know the last one," he said, and whispered in Eddie's ear. Eddie nodded assent and held the door open. As the others looked on in amazement, Flynn sauntered in, mumbling about pea-green boats and 5 pound notes.
Jimmy was now looking over the list. "Aha! I know this one. The poet and I have the same name. " He whispered 4 words in Eddie's ear, and before the others could recover from the shock, he too went inside.
K.C. took the list next. He wanted to redeem himself after his disappointing performance at the ball game. "I know lots of poems. I'll get us all in like Flynn," he boasted. As he read the list, though, his confidence faltered. Can you help K.C. and the other remaining members of the team get into the club? You'll need to solve at least 10 of the following famous first lines:
0) N M is an I
1) O upon a M D
2) T R D in a Y W
3) T was T K into the E
4) A T of B is a J for E
5) In F F the P B
6) The W was a T of D among the G T
7) I M G D to the S A, to the L S and the S
8) S W in B, like the N
9) The O W B for the M N that D
10) In X did K K
11) I T that I S N S
12) There are S T D in the M S
13) T T, B B
14) The O and the P-C W to S
"Would it help to know the poets?" offered Eddie. "There's a list on the back of the paper. It's an alphabetical list, so it's not in the same order as the list of lines, but maybe you know some of their poems?"
K.C. turned over the sheet of paper in his hands to find the following list:
William Blake
Robert Burns
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
John Donne
Robert Frost
George Gordon, Lord Byron
John Keats
Joyce Kilmer
Edward Lear
John Masefield
John McCrae
Alfred Noyes
Edgar Allan Poe
Robert W. Service
Ernest Lawrence Thayer
"Yes, this will help a bunch," he exclaimed. "William Blake is the poet with the same last name as Jimmy. I only know one of his poems, and its first line matches line #13."
~~~~~~~~~~
"Tyger Tyger, burning bright," recited K.C.,
"In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
"What about the last one? The one that Flynn knew?" asked Hank.
"The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea," supplied Tim,
"In a beautiful pea-green boat:
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note."
"Who wrote that poem?" asked Hank, looking at the list of poets again.
"Edward Lear," said K.C., his confidence returning.
Having already forgotten their disappointing loss, the boys worked together to solve 8 more of the famous first lines. They all had a great time at the poetry readings and the limerick writing contest.
Honorable mention was awarded to Professor Dayton Voorhees, who wrote:
There once was a man from Nantucket,
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man,
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.
Third place went to Edward Lear, the bouncer, for:
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared! - -
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard.
Second place went to Jon Saxton for:
((12 + 144 + 20 + 3*Sqrt[4]) / 7) + 5*11 = 9² + 0.
Or
A dozen, a gross, and a score
Plus three times the square root of four
Divided by seven
Plus five times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more.
Very clever!
First prize, however, went to a poetry club member named Sam Clemens.
A man hired by JohnSmith and Co.
Loudly declared that he'd tho.
Men that he saw
Dumping dirt by the door
The drivers, therefore, didn't do.
For the solution to the letter equations, check out my teaser at https://www.braingle.com/brainteasers/52864/famous-firsts.html
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