Here's yesterday's "bird description" again ... so I can show you what I did... it all kicks off with the title .... A feeble, rather uninteresting sort of description of a slightly mysterious bird, hardly worth reading really [Tapinosis: Downplaying and reducing something.] The "Unknown Birdlet" is not unlike a humungously massive Blackcap ... well, it is actually incredibly, unbelievably so totally not unlike one, you'd scarcely believe it it could be so very very not unlike it. Seriously. I'd stake my life on it. And the lives of my whole family. [Hyperbole: Deliberate over-exaggeration.]++[Distinctio: Describing something by saying what it is not.] Now, I'm not going to even mention the way that the cheeks and nape are the same colour as the crown, and I won't say a word about them being deep brownish black in the males, and as for the females, not even a hint about them being a lighter brown. Not a word. [Autoclesis: introducing an item by refusing to discuss it.] They also have a, let's call it a sort of whitish chin, with sort of, maybe, if you know what I mean,not worth mentioning really, white outer tail feathers. [Meiosis: Understatement for emphasis or effect.] It nests, breeds, reproduces in South-Western Europe, Luxembourg, and N.W.Africa. On not three, not four, but five occasions it has been met with, seen and closely observed in southern counties, down south, way down there. [Tricolon: Three components, increasing power. I came, I saw, I conquered ] But, if you can believe it , the first record, not that I necessarily give it much credence, was, well maybe, from Yorkshire ( very likely !) in 1848 .... oh yes, of course it was ??!! NOT ! [Aporia: Feigned doubt.] and/or [Tapinosis: Downplaying and reducing something.] An old bird wasn't found , and certainly not in 1905, having been brought back to life by not flying into a telegraph wire. [Distinctio: Describing something by saying what it is not.] Oh, how I remember so deeply, so deep in my soul, that it is 6" long, and oh, how harrowing it was when I discovered its wings were a tiny, upsetting 3.1 " ..and oh ! its tiny ,tiny Tarsus, well, I burst into tears when I learned that it was only 0.9". I think I'm going to cry. [Anamnesis: Emotional recall.] In each section I used different "figures of speech" ... as you can see. These are widely used in the literary world, or maybe they aren't, and also in everyday speech by ordinary, everyday unassuming people without realising it. And I'm not even going to mention their widespread use in advertising... or am I ? I've no idea. Who cares ? But there's an additional thing .... what species is being described ? If you've got a household crammed, overwhelmed and bursting with old, tatty, decrepit books,but I don't suppose you have, you'll probably have no chance of finding it in T.A. Coward's The Birds of the British Isles volume 1, 1961 edition, pages 198-199. Oh. how utterly lovely is that book, in its sweetikins shit-brown binding that I have caressed sensually many, many, many times over what now, looking back, seem like centuries.Not that it'll be worth reading when you've found it. I'll burst into tears in a minute just thinking about it. ..and here's the words video .... go on, sing along, it's beautiful ....
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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