Something Rhymes with Purple - Pea Green Boat

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

Today, Gyles compares us to a Summer’s day as he takes us on exploration of one of his favourite subjects: Poetry, and specifically, the Sonnet. Together, Susie and Gyles will uncover the A’s and B’s of this ‘little song’, deciphering the iambic from the pentameter, and encountering the greats from Shakespeare to Petrarch to Milton. 14 lines later, we’ll have what Gyles teaches us can be a companion for life as there is always a poem for an occasion that can provide comfort and company. We’ll be dancing by the light of the moon by the end of this episode!  A Somethin’ Else production.  If you would like to take part in Susie and Gyles’ sonnet writing challenge, please email them in to [e-mail].  To buy SRWP mugs and more head to.... https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple  If you would like to sign up to Apple Subs please follow this link https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/something-rhymes-with-purple/id1456772823 and make sure that you are running the most up-to-date IOS on your computer/device otherwise it won’t work.  Susie trio: To be overmused and have thinkache: To be exhausted from too much thinking and then encounter an instance of mental suffering and general weariness in your mind. Fauchle - Scottish word meaning to work listlessly and not be able to concentrate. Firgun - Hebrew term meaning unselfish pride and admiration in someone else’s deeds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up y'all it's your man Mark Strong Strizzy and your girl Jem the Jem of all Jems and we're hosting Olympic FOMO your essential recap podcast of the 2024 Olympic Games in 20 minutes or less every day we'll be going behind the scenes for all the wins

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with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main We'll see you next time. Annex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. Hello and welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple, a podcast about words and language that is hosted by me, Susie Dent, and my fantastic co-host who recently celebrated his birthday, Giles Brandreth.

Hi, Giles. When's your birthday? My birthday's in March. I'm a Piscean. What are you? I'm a Scorpion. November. Oh, sexy old Scorpio.

We're supposed to be, I think we're supposed to be quite vindictive as far as I know. No, you're supposed to be very sexy. Oh. Famously so. Well, anyway, so that's me. I've got a little while to go. But I mention that because I know that you are, I mean,

your life is absolutely full of poetry. And you remind me of Nick Hewer, erstwhile host of Countdown, the show that I work on in the UK. And Nick could deliver a line of poetry for almost any situation. It would be just the mention of a word on the show, and he would suddenly come out with something that he said he hadn't actually voiced for years and years and years. But as a boy, he had been immersed in poetry and remembers it still. And you are very much like that. And I want you to be my teacher today. Nick and I are of a similar generation and we were blessed and lucky enough to be at school at a time when one learned poems often by rote. You know, you were told to go away and learn a poem by heart and the joy of it is that it stays somewhere in the rattlebag of your mind. So yes, we can talk about poetry. Yes, because the birthday connection

was I was wondering, did anybody read you or give you a poem on your birthday? I recited a few poems to myself on my birthday. They are a good companion. And knowing that we were going to talk about poetry today in general and sonnets in particular, I made a list because one of my grandchildren who's living with us at the moment, we've got children and grandchildren living back at home. And one of the grandchildren said, what's the point of a poem? And I thought, what is the point of a poem? What does a poem do for you? And I scribbled down a dozen things that a poem can do for you.

And I'm really sharing this with you, Susie, because I don't know how much poetry you read, and I don't know how much poetry purple people read. But a poem is a good companion. That's the first thing to say. You're never alone if you've got a poem in your head. If you've got nothing to say to yourself, a poem will say something to you. I mean, a poem can be a comforting link with the past. That's the second thing I put on my list. Many of the poems we remember best are the poems we learned first. What You're Telling Me About Nick Hewer is a good example of that. And they remain good companions all your life.

The owl and the pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat. I mean, the moment you begin to say that, you feel comforted by it. Of course, a poem can also be a challenge. That's the third thing I wrote down. You know, what's the poem about? And it's good to stretch your mind. And a poem, of course, can stretch your vocabulary. I mean, if you read a

poet like Milton, one of the greatest of all the English poets, given his way with words, his range of references, the googling never stops. You know, what is he saying? What does it mean? A poem can help you go to sleep. Reciting a poem about sheep is a more satisfying way to nod off than counting them. And there's a poem by Christina Rossetti called The Lambs of Grassmere that I've been trying to learn, which is all about sheep. I mean, a poem can be an icebreaker. Do you have a favourite poem, Susie? I have lots, lots of favourite poems. In some ways, asking me that is the same as do I have a favourite word, but possibly my favourite poet of all is Louis McNeice. And his Autumn Journal is just something

that has been with me for many, many years, since my 20s. And also actually you recited one last week from Sigfrid Sassoon, which touched me so much as I think it will a lot of purple listeners because it's about a moment of beauty in the midst of war.

And so I'm going to read that one again because it's just gorgeous. of beauty in the midst of war. And so I'm going to read that one again because it's just gorgeous. I mean, well, I think what's interesting about poetry too is, and this is my list of things that poetry can do, is it can do stuff that prose can't do. I mean, a poem can be elusive, elliptical, illogical, ambiguous, nonsensical, fantastical, phantasmagorical i love that word i don't know where it comes from i know it was used a lot by lewis carroll phantasmagoria phantasm it's a kind of dream isn't it a phantasm i mean how old is that word that would be greek but i think phantasmagoria will be probably more recent so the latin phantasma as illusion or deceptive appearance.

Of course, it gave us a phantom as well. And yes, it goes back to the Greek meaning present to the eye. So an illusion that is, I suppose, like a vision, really. And phantasmagoria, I am now looking this up for you in the Oxford English Dictionary. I suspect that might be more recent. Yeah, 19th century, an exhibition of optical illusions produced chiefly by the use

of a magic lantern, first exhibited in London in 1801. So that's quite interesting too. And then, of course, it came to mean a vision of, a kind of series, I suppose, of imaginary or fantastic forms that you might witness in a dream

or a fevered state. Imaginary or fantastic forms, words upon the page. And you don't always have to understand them. Because what poetry does is it creates music and mood and magic and mystery, as well as meaning. There was an American poet called Wallace Stevens, who lived in the sort of first half of the 20th century, born in the 1870s. And one of his lines that I like very much is this one.

The poem must resist the intelligence almost successfully. What it means is you don't want a poem to be banal. You want it almost to be elusive, you know? I mean, sometimes it can be very clear. And then a poem can offer consolation and catharsis. And a poem can make you laugh. A poem can make you feel. According to T.S. Eliot, genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.

Isn't that good? And I really liken poetry to music. What is poetry? According to Plutarch, and he's important in the discussion we're about to have about sonnets, painting is silent poetry and poetry is painting that speaks. Yeah. According to William Wordsworth, poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. It takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility. recollected in tranquility. According to the great American poet Carl Sandburg,

poetry is an echo asking a shadow to dance. I love it. So poetry can be all sorts of things in all sorts of ways. And you said to me when discussing what we're going to talk about this week, don't just talk generally about poetry. Let's get into something specific. So we're going to talk a little bit about sonnets, if we may. Do you know what a sonnet is? Well, I can tell you the etymology of sonnet itself, which is a little sound. So quite sort of broad, but yes, it goes back again to the Latin. And then usually Latin came to us via French, but a little sound. So I know it's a 14-line poem.

I know it's written in an iambic pentameter, but you might have to remind me what that is. I mentioned Louis McNeice, and there is a poem of his that I love called Sunday Morning, and I can't tell if it's a sonnet or not. So can you give us the criteria for a sonnet? I certainly can. I love it being a little sound. Just one sonnetto, give it to me. Delicious poetry from Italy. And I say it's from Italy because the sonnet form was pioneered by the Italian scholar Petroc, who I mentioned a moment ago, locally known as Francesco Petrarca, 1304 to 74, and fellow Renaissance poets.

But it was adopted and developed by the English from the 1500s onwards. And Shakespeare is rightly considered the Elizabethan sonnet maestro. And you're right. The traditional sonnet has 14 lines, is written in iambic pentameters, and has a set rhyming scheme. Let me try and explain the iambic pentameters and has a set rhyming scheme. Let me try and explain the iambic pentameter. It's quite difficult. An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Da-doom. Da-doom. And funnily enough, the da-doom is the rhythm of the human heartbeat, which is why, and there's research that shows this, babies and toddlers

respond well to Shakespeare and why Shakespearean verse is easy to learn at any age. When the great Dame Judi Dench told me that her first poem she learned as a little girl was Shakespeare, I didn't believe her. But I then went to the memory laboratory at Cambridge University and they explained to me, oh, no, no, no, no. It is absolutely the da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum. It's the rhythm of the human heartbeat, and that's why it's so easy to get. You may not understand it, but you can get the rhythm. Penta means five, doesn't it, in Greek? And meter comes from the Greek for measure, I think.

So a standard line of iambic pentameter is five iambic feet in a row. Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum. So you can hear that in any number of Shakespeare's lines. You know, when I do count the clock that tells the time, that's sonnet 12. In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes, that's sonnet 141. The opening of Twelfth Night, do you know the first line of the play Twelfth Night? Most people do. If music? Oh, yes. Be the food of love, play on. Exactly. If music, be the food of love, play on. The first line of Romeo and Juliet? No idea. You'll recognise it. Two households both alike in dignity.

Yes. The great director, Peter Hall, was very emphatic about how you had to speak Shakespeare using the iambic pentameter. Don't muck about with it. Don't try and make it naturalistic. If you want it to be naturalistic, you've written in prose. It's poetry for a reason. And there is something quite extraordinary about it.

Now, to work out what is a sonnet, what's a Shakespearean sonnet and a Petrarchan sonnet work out what is a sonnet, what's a Shakespearean sonnet and a Petrarchan sonnet, with the Shakespearean sonnet, the rhyming pattern is A, B, A, B, C, D, C, D, E, F, E, F, G, G. Those are the lines that rhyme. A and B, a rhyme, and then A and B, repeat the rhyme, C and D. Do you get that? And with the Petrarchan sonnet, it's A, B, B, A, And with the Petrarchan sonnet, it's A-B-B-A-A-B-B-A-C-D-E-C-D-E. Or A-B-A-A-B-B-A-A-B-C-D-E-C-D. This is very complicated. It is very complicated.

But that's how you'll work out whether the sonnet you're worrying about is... Can I give you the first verse? Yes. And you can tell me. Yeah. Okay. So this isn't actually my favourite Louis McNee's poem, but it is a lovely one. Is it 14 lines for a start?

Yes. Good. It's a good start. It is. Louis McNees is an Irish poet born in Belfast and highly recommend him. Anyway, Sunday morning. Down the road, someone is practising scales. The notes, like little fishes, vanish with a wink of tails. Man's heart expands to tinker with his car for this is sunday morning

fate's great bizarre regard these means as ends concentrate on this now that's the first answer and then this is the last four lines but listen up the road something gulps the church spire opens its eight bells out skulls mouths which will not tire to tell how there is no music or Is that a sonnet? It's Louis Magnese's take on a sonnet. It's not a traditional sonnet. It doesn't form the traditional rhyming patterns. But it does do, I think, because of that last quatrain that you gave us, what sonnets tend to do, because they're divided into sections that do different jobs. In the Petrarchan sonnet, the sections are broken up into an octave, which is the first eight lines of the poem, and a sestet, the final six lines.

In a Shakespeare sonnet, there are three quatrains, three four-line stanzas, followed by a final couplet. And that sounds, Louis MacNeill sounds as if he's done that, he's broken it up into sections to tell his story. Well, he does use the word sonnet in the middle stanza, which I didn't tell you. Oh, no. And it is, if it's 14 lines, I mean, you know, who makes the rules on these things? I mean, these rules have been made by academics retrospectively. It's not a traditional Shakespearean or Petrarchan sonnet, but it's a McNeice sonnet. He uses the line, a small eternity, a sonnet self-contained in rhyme. So I think he is hinting that this is one, if it even mattered to him. But anyway, beautiful poem, and it gave me a chance to shout out Louis McNeese. But also, I'll tell you what it does do. It has in it a volta. A volta marks the transition to the final section of the poem. The original volta was an Italian dance

that involved a sudden quick twist or move. And in a sonnet, the volta is the turn of thought or argument that comes before the poem ends so that's what mcneese gives you at the end there doesn't he he just rams it home with his final thoughts do you agree yeah yes it does it definitely steps out from something that feels quite comforting and secure and then so often it kind of it goes off in a different direction it's interesting when you were talking about iambic pentameters did you know about the origin of iambic no i'd love to well it goes back origin of iambic? No, I'd love to. Well, it goes back to, or iambus, it goes back to the Greek for attacking verbally, weirdly or not, because the first iambic verses were used by satirists to lampoon other people.

So they were kind of caricatures, if you like. That obviously doesn't fit with the way that it progressed, but that was its early, early meaning. Very interesting. I mean, the world is awash with glorious sonnets. And if I'm going to recommend a book, you'll find 600 of the best of them in the Penguin Book of the Sonnet, 500 years of classic tradition in English. So these are sonnets in English, but it does include people like McNeice who've sort of veered a bit from the norms. It's edited by Phyllis Levin. I have so many favourite sonnets. I'm quite a traditionalist, but I also like people like Gerard Manley Hopkins, who writes sonnets in very curious forms that you wouldn't recognise as a sonnet. But I learnt almost my favourite one

on Westminster Bridge, which I thought I'd perform for you now, read to you now. And I learned this in the 1990s when I was a member of parliament. People internationally may find this hard to believe, but I was a member of parliament years and years ago. And quite a few members of parliament, interestingly, over the years have written poetry. Geoffrey Chaucer, you know, great poet, was a member of parliament. John Donne was a British member of parliament. George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, all people who were MPs in their time. Anyway, I'm not a poet, but I'm a lover of poetry. And late at night, when I was an MP, we used to have all-night sittings where you'd be required to vote in the middle of the night. And I would go out of the House of Commons between votes and cross and recross the River Thames to learn Wordsworth's poem,

Lines Composed on Westminster Bridge. And he wrote it on the September the 3rd, 1802. Earth has not anything to show more fair. Dull would he be of soul who could pass by a sight so touching in its majesty. This city now doth like a garment wear the beauty of the morning, silent, bare. Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie open unto the fields and to the sky, all bright and glittering in the smokeless air. Never did sun more beautifully steep in his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill,

ne'er saw I never felt a calm so deep. The river glideth at his own sweet will. Dear God, the very houses seem asleep, and all that mighty heart is lying still. And what intrigues me about that poem, it was written 220 years ago, is that all the language and all the words in it are ones that we still know and understand. Tell me about Glydeth.

Why did people say Glydeth as opposed to glides? So this was written in the 1800s, wasn't it? Yeah, 1802. Yeah. I suspect that the F form of the verb was already kind of passed by then, but it is much more poetic, isn't it? I am just going to see. Oh, I see. It's I glide, thou glidest, he glideth. Yes. We, what are the, do you think it's then we glid? No, he glideth. Yes. We, what is that? What is it? Do you think it's then we glid?

No, we glideth. I'm just going to look up when the F endings disappeared. And I suspect it would have been preserved in poetry long after most people would use it in everyday language. Well, I might give you another sonnet while you're looking that up by John Agard. Now, he was born in 1949. in 1949. And this is a poem called Toussaint Louverture acknowledges Wordsworth's sonnet to Toussaint Louverture. Sounds rather complicated, but François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture was a Haitian revolutionary who was imprisoned by the French and whose plight caught the imagination of radical romantics, like William Wordsworth, Cumbrian poet, who wrote a

sonnet in Louverture's praise not long before he died in French captivity in 1803. And 200 years later, John Agard, poet, playwright of Afro-Guyanese heritage, wrote this sonnet in praise of Wordsworth. in praise of Wordsworth. I have never walked on Westminster Bridge, or had a close-up view of daffodils. My childhood's roots are Haitian hills, where runaway slaves made a freedom pledge, and scarlet poinsenias flaunt their scent. I have never walked on Westminster Bridge or speak like you with Cumbrian accent. My tongue bridges Europe to Dahomey. Yet how sweet is the smell of liberty when human beings share a common garment. So thanks, brother, for your sonnet's tribute. May it resound when the Thames's text stays mute. And what better

ground than a city's bridge for my unchained ghost to trumpet love's decree. Now, isn't that extraordinary? This is a poet born, as it were, in our lifetime, responding to a poet who died 200 years ago, who was responding to the heroism of somebody who was, well, a revolutionary imprisoned by the French in his own country. And that line, we think of the present awful world that we're living in, yet how sweet is the smell of liberty when human beings share a common garment marvelous stuff yeah marvelous this is what poetry can do if you spend time but it does take time and concentration and a bit of looking things up in the dictionary which i just have so back to glydith briefly. So it does continue in poetry, but actually in standard kind

of grammar, you'll find that that third person singular, eth, became obsolete in early modern English. So we're talking about the end of the 17th century, but Wordsworth clearly using it for, you know, for sonorous reasons, quite understandably, because it is much more poetic, isn't it, than Glydeth. I love that. Great. Well, let's take a break for people to have a little break, maybe go and see what books of poetry they've got on their shelves, decide which sonnet they're going to read first and why. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic. Hi there. Still no. What about hello, handsome? Who knew you could give yourself the ick?

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that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic? Well, for us, and I'm going to guess for some of you, that thing is... Anime! Hi, I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. And welcome to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. It's a weekly news show. With the best celebrity guests.

And hot takes galore. So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. This is Something Rhymes with Purple, where this week we're talking about poetry in general and sonnets in particular. And it's just occurred to me we've got the most brilliant purple people all over planet Earth. Maybe we've got some poets out there, or people that don't know their poets yet. Why not try writing a purple sonnet? We shall interpret it quite loosely. It must be 14 lines, but it doesn't need to be a Petrarchan sonnet following that rhyme scheme, or a Shakespearean sonnet. It doesn't have to be written Petrarchan sonnet following that rhyme scheme or a Shakespearean sonnet. It doesn't have to be written in iambic pentameters, but it should have a set rhyming

scheme. Fourteen lines, a set rhyming scheme. I like a sonnet that actually certainly has a volta, so it changes the mood sort of partway through it, probably after, you know, eight lines or twelve lines. Anyway, write us a sonnet, And I'll persuade one of my publishers to give a copy of my collection of poems to learn by heart, Dancing by the Light of the Moon, as a prize. And there's quite a bit in there, not only about learning poetry, but about the nature of poetry. And if you want the technical stuff about how to make a sonnet, you can find it in there as well. So send it to us,

purple at something else dot com, no g in something. Have people been in touch with us this week? Oh, they certainly have. We always love your emails. And the first one, and I think we can hear from him, comes from Jack Hughes. Dear Giles and Susie, thank you so much for your continued linguistic endeav endeavors on the podcast. I have to say I've adored the past few episodes, particularly the live shows. A couple of fruity questions have been rattling around my head this week. Firstly, why is a grapefruit called a grapefruit in spite of its status as a citrus? And secondly, why do we hold strawberries when we take the tops off them?

And why do we not, to the best of my knowledge, do the same to other kinds of fruit? Is there maybe a link between strawberry hulling, the hull of a ship, or even the city of hull? All the best for the week ahead. Jack. Oh, Jack, isn't that brilliant? I love the way the purple people's minds work. Isn't that extraordinary? Can you answer his fruity questions? Why is a grapefruit called a grapefruit? Do you know what I'm doing now? Because you know what I'm like, I take off on these little adventures in my dictionary because I hear something and I think, oh, I wonder where

that comes from. So that was from Jack, as you say, and he's asking about fruit. And I suddenly wondered, where does jackfruit come from? I don't know if you've had jackfruit, but it's quite often the vegetarian or vegan equivalent of meat. And it's nothing to do with the way that we use jack for a sort of jack of all trades or a steeplejack or a lumberjack and any kind of, you know, generic, useful holder, if you like. It actually goes back to a Portuguese and a word that looked very different, which is J-A-C-A. So I'm sorry about that. It was just a little foray of mine into the dictionary. So why is a grapefruit called a grapefruit given its citrus status? I'm not the best to talk about what defines a fruit, but I think we've always called the grapefruit a fruit and its fruits

grow in clusters and look like little grapes. So that is why if you actually look at how the grapefruit is grown, you will see that they look like little bunches of grapes. I would always think of a citrus as a citrus fruit, wouldn't you? I would. Yeah. So I don't think it's that much of a surprise that a grapefruit is called a fruit, but he asks, Jack asks, why do we hull strawberries when we take the tops off them when we don't do the same to other kinds of fruit? And then he says, is there a link between strawberry hulling, the hull of a ship and the city of hull? So I'm going to start first with

the hull of a ship. So I'm going to work backwards. Now it might be related to the idea of hulling of fruit because when you hull a fruit it is all about taking off the husk or the pod so the outer covering if you like the husk of grain so if you think about the hull of a ship it's its framework its shell its basic structure so it actually might be related and if you talk about the hull of a fruit that comes from the German Hüste meaning a husk or a pod so you can refer to it in that sense whereas the verb as I say is kind of taking it off or removing them but the hull of a ship might possibly be related alternatively to hold we have the hold of a ship which itself is a sibling of whole and also of hollow so it's something that is kind of

carved out at the bottom of a ship so So two possibilities there, but both hulls might be related. As to the city of hull, I'm sorry, I can't give you any definitive answers here, Jack. But again, quite a few theories for that one, because some people think it goes back to, well, it's certainly related to the river hull, but some people think that it might actually be topographical and refer to a hull, so to be a relative of hill, because it goes back to a place where there was a mound. And nobody quite knows. So I don't think the hull of a ship or the hull of a fruit is related to the city of Hull. But again, if anybody knows differently amongst the purple people, please do let me know. Have you ever tried the grapefruit diet?

Oh, that's nonsense, isn't it? It is nonsense. My mother tried it for years. She would you ever tried the grapefruit diet oh that's nonsense it is nonsense my mother tried it for years she would just have half a grapefruit and little brown sugar with brown sugar yeah my mum used to love that unfortunately it never really worked because then she really she felt so peckish afterwards she had a bacon sandwich i said mum this is not going to work and it didn't oh yeah isn't it something about it's supposed to be the enzymes in grapefruit somehow ate away at all your fat or something ridiculous totally ridiculous yes anyway yes who else has been in touch we have an interesting question from emma bampton hi says emma i'm very cool and down with the kids 35 year old last night i saw a tiktok which shook me to the core

apparently the phrase bucket list wasn't really a thing until the film of the same name in 2007. Surely that can't be true. It feels like it's been around forever. Thank you for that. But Jaz, do you ever talk about your bucket list? And if so, what's on it? People are constantly asking me what's on my bucket list. And I'm ticking things off gradually because I'm nearer my sell by date than you are. So I've got to get a move on. And last year, I did manage to milk a cow, which is something I was really keen to do. And I found I was a very natural cow milker. I did it really quite well. Is it quite mesmerizing? It's completely fascinating and satisfying as your bucket fills up. And the cow is so charming and docile. And mine was, she wasn't called Daisy, but I called her Daisy. And we got on famously. I'll put a picture of me milking the cow up on Twitter so that people can

take a look and see me milking the cow. Yes, I do have something on my bucket list. I like to do a lot, a great variety of things. I have never been in a TV soap. I've been in every kind of television program you could imagine for more than 50 years, everything from religious program to- Have you been on The Archers? No, I would regard that as a soap. I want to be on a TV soap. I'm a friend of the actress.

I mean, I've got several friends who are in soaps. The actress Maureen Lipman is in Coronation Street at the moment. And I'm trying to persuade her to persuade the producers to have me as an old love interest of hers, possibly a defrocked bishop who has come back to Coronation Street to live in hiding during his twilight years and is wanting to rekindle the relationship

from many years ago. And so Maureen is working on that. And I've got a friend called Brian Connolly, who's a wonderful entertainer and actor. And he is currently in EastEnders, where he plays a bit of a white boy. And I've asked him to put in a good word for me there. And I thought I might be a lawyer, a struck off lawyer. I mean, I feel there's got to be something slightly ne'er do well about my character. So that's on my bucket list. What is on your bucket list still? I don't think I've created my bucket list yet

and I need to get moving. I wouldn't mind being on The Archers because I've grown up with The Archers, so it's absolutely my comfort listening. For those outside Britain, The Archers is probably the longest running radio soap ever and it is set in a fictional town, is it a village, of Ambridge.

And yeah, absolutely, my mum used to listen to it. And just for me, it just takes me right home. Did you watch Neighbours in the 1980s and 1990s? I did used to watch Neighbours and sadly it's going to be no more. It's come to the end of its life. And of course, I think it is true to say that people of my children's generation began speaking with not so much an Australian accent as with an uplift. I think it really happened as a result of listening to neighbors.

Yeah. No, I think that's probably true. Although etymologically, not etymologically, linguistically, it seems more likely that actually came, maybe it went to Australia from Valley Girl Speak in the US. So maybe it went to Australia and then came to us. But yeah, it's more likely I think that originated there anyway back to emma's question and i should also say that the same question was submitted by joe dodds from northumberland who giles really enjoyed meeting you and michelle at the live show in newcastle so shout out to joe as well so the bucket list is all about kicking the bucket isn't it it's all about what you want to do before you kick the bucket which is an expression most of us are

familiar with and which has a really dark and horrible origin especially for us vegans and vegetarians and the likely origin is that a pig particularly an animal would have its throat cut while being suspended from a beam and in the dying throw the throes of death would kick the bucket that um yeah that the person suspending it from the ceiling had stood upon absolutely horrible anyway so that's probably where it comes from but back to happier things it absolutely was popularized by the film the bucket list in 2007 and i say popularized because we can never be quite sure whether that was the first use of it or whether in fact as Emma feels

it goes back much further than that but certainly in terms of the printed records that we have and the Oxford English Dictionary 2007 was when it really came to the fore and that's when our records first start so you never know I mean the OED is full of well it has teams and teams of people working for it who are always trying to find earlier records of particular words and expressions. So it may be that, you know, kicking the bucket and the bucket list will be, as they say, anti-dated and people will find earlier records. But certainly the bucket list popularised it. Very good. I'm not going to use the phrase anymore now I've discovered the origin. I think it's so grim.

It is horrible. Gosh. Yeah. Oh, ghastly. Sorry about that. Lift our spirits, if you would, by giving us your trio, three special words that you feel need greater currency. Well, we talked last week particularly, didn't we, about how it's very hard to stop feeling anxious at the moment and stop feeling helpless and desperate, really, for the world and particularly for the Ukrainians at the moment and stop feeling helpless and desperate really for you know the world and particularly for the ukrainians at the moment and this is one i think that maybe will chime with a lot of us in that we are over mused and have think ache so to be over mused is to be really exhausted

from too much thinking and it's very hard not to be as i say at the moment and think ache is in the dictionary i offer these two together as a sort of instance of mental suffering, but also the kind of, you know, the sort of, as I say, weariness, bone weariness that comes from just your mind, just going to places that you never thought it would have to go to. So over-amused and thin cake, the first two that I offer as a couple. The next one is sort of related as well. Now, I'm not sure I'm pronouncing this properly and any Scots Purple people, please do correct me because I couldn't actually find a very accurate pronunciation for this, but it's spelled F-A-U-C-H-L-E. So Focal or Focal.

F-A-U-C-H-L-E. Focal, yeah. Say it carefully. And it's from the Scots. Yes, exactly exactly and it essentially means to work listlessly and without really being able to concentrate because your mind's just not in the game so that is fochel just be careful with that and i'm going to end with a positive because again this is something i think so many of us felt looking at the sheer courage and determination of the ukrainian people and that is actually a hebrew term fergan f-i-r-g-u-n we may have had it before giles it's unselfish pride and admiration in someone else's deeds fergan so that's positive one to end very good when you're suffering from

think ache and over musing what's the comfort viewing you turn to on the tv i am a bit like you mentioned last week that your your children your grandchildren don't watch tv in the conventional sense i'm not sure many of us do still i will just try and get into a good drama that's where i go to or a good book essentially have you seen shakespeare and hathaway i've got so many you gave me loads that i need to watch i gave gave you movies, I gave you proper movies to watch. You did, you did. Shakespeare and Hathaway is a very gentle, slightly comic detective series set in Stratford-upon-Avon, two private investigators. And it's great fun. Yes, it's when you want to watch things like Murder, She Wrote. Absolutely. Oh, and I've been watching, this will really make you laugh, you won't even have heard of it. Well, you may have heard of the character. A novel's written by Georges Simenon about a detective called Maigret.

at Davis from the early 1960s. These are in black and white. And you can actually see the sets shaking. I mean, they do occasionally go out on location and film bits, but mostly it's done. But it's so good. And, you know, you can get away from the horrors of the world momentarily when you're suffering from think ache with that. But a lot of people like comfort viewing of things like The Repair Shop. Have you seen that? Oh, yes. That's gorgeous. That's so lovely. I'm in tears at the end of every single episode that I watch of that

because what it means to people who bring in their old doll's house or mechanical toy from their childhood and what it means to them is incredible. It's an absolutely lovely programme. Well, obviously what I would recommend if you're suffering from think ache or or over-muse, is to actually go, maybe over-muse is not right to go to another muse, but to go to the Muse of Poetry, because it does require concentration. That's the challenge of

poetry. Well, not all poetry does. You can read a limerick and just have fun, or read those lovely poems by people like Edward Lear, and just enjoy the language and the use of language. But also thought-provoking poetry is nice and poetry with a message. So I'm going to end with a poem. And it was my wife's birthday the other day. Yes. Happy birthday, Michelle. And I learned a poem for her a few years ago. Because one of the things that you can do with poetry, I mean, poetry enables you to do so much, but it also, it does enable you to get the girl or the boy. It's a cheeky trick, this, but if you can master it, it really does work.

Okay. Dating tips from Joel Crandall. Dating tips. Well, admittedly, dating was rather different 50 years ago when I was first doing it. I learned this. It's an interesting trick. I learned it from somebody of an older generation. At an early date, you say to your date, you say, you know, is there a poem that you like? You know, what's your favorite poet? And just get to talking about poetry. And if they mention a poem, they don't mention a poem, forget it. But if they do mention a poem, you just clock it and say nothing more about it.

And then go away secretly and learn the poem. And then several dates later, several, don't do it immediately, several dates later, at an unexpected moment, you say to the person, oh, I've got a present for you. And then you recite the poem. And so this is a poem that I first learned half a century ago. It's by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. And when it was first published, it was published in a collection called Sonnets from the Portuguese. And this was because she wanted to give the impression that these were translations, they were actually original poems, but because it was so unusual to be a poetess, to be taken seriously in those days. She lived from 1806 to 1861. It was more comfortable

for her to say these were sonnets from the Portuguese, but she wrote this. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach when feeling out of sight for the ends of being and ideal grace. my soul can reach when feeling out of sight for the ends of being an ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's most quiet need by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely as men strive for right. I love thee purely as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use in my old griefs and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seem to lose with my lost sense. I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all

my life. And if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. Oh, wow. That's really powerful, isn't it? And it's a sonnet and a traditional one too. So if you've got a sonnet that you'd like to write or can write and want to enter our competition and get a book as a prize, it's purple at somethingelse.com. And actually we ought to say if people want to support the show, they can do so for a monthly sub of $1.89 a month. And they get all the episodes ad-free, and you get a discount code on the merchandise range and access to the exclusive bonus episodes. We've done them on train spotting and wortel and cheese, and we've got a new miniseries on the nation's favorite swear words to catch up on. Those are

the episodes that my grandchildren are wanting to listen to. Anyway, to find out more and to start a seven-day free trial, follow the links in the programme description. Yes, and please do keep getting in touch at purpleatsomethingelse.com. Something Right or Purple is a Something Else production.

It was produced by Lawrence Bassett and Harriet Wells with additional production from Chris Skinner, Jen Mystery, Jay Beale, and I wonder if he would write a sonnet. Or whether you have a sonnet for him?

He's too busy forkling. F-A-U-C-H-L-I-N-G, of course. He's G-U-L-L-I. It's Gully.