Playing with Words

Summary

The author recounts a childhood filled with wordplay and family games, leading to a lifelong love of language.

Abstract

The author shares a personal history of enjoying word games and puns, instilled by family traditions during childhood. These games included word searches, Hangman, and a homemade game called Stinky Pinky, which involved rhyming and clue-giving. The author's father, known for his punning, played a significant role in fostering this love for words. This early exposure to the playfulness of language shaped the author's appreciation for poetry, particularly the works of Gerard Manley Hopkins, which combined linguistic playfulness with profound thought.

Opinions

The author has a fondness for word games and their ability to entertain and engage.
Wordplay is seen as a source of joy and a way to bond with family.
The author's father is remembered as a skilled punster who enjoyed making people groan with his jokes.
The discovery of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poetry revealed to the author that language can be both playful and convey deep meaning.
The author believes that behind serious messages in poetry, there is an underlying joy that can be found in the playfulness of words.

Playing with Words

Funny words have always been my friends: Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo; supercalifragilisticexpialidocious; corpulent porpoises; squat.

My family loved playing word games. Mom and Dad would give us kids booklets of word search games to keep us quiet in the car on long drives. Every day after supper my family played games, and Hangman was a staple.

Mom liked word games everyone could play. The game she taught us kids was Stinky Pinky. The rules were that you had to come up with two words that rhymed, and they had to be one adjective and one noun. Then you had to give a clue as to the meaning, and a clue as to how long the pairs were. So a single syllable would be a Stink Pink, two syllables would be a Stinky Pinky, and three syllables would be a Stinkety Pinkety.

Here are some examples:

a rosy noggin Stink Pink (red head);

a fuzzy fruit Stinky Pinky (hairy berry);

a left-handed preacher Stinkety Pinkety (sinister minister).

My dad was well-known as a terrible punster (meaning, of course, a good one). He used to make up puns, to our constant delight. He didn’t like anything better than telling a pun at dinner (captive audience) and making people groan. One of his old favorite puns (because he also coached the chess club) was:

Several friends attended a chess competition together, and at the end of the day they returned to their hotel, lingering in the lobby, reviewing their games and bragging about their best moves and their victories. After a while, the manager came out and asked them to go to their rooms. When they asked him why, he said, “I can’t stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.”

This playful background ensured I would love words all my life. After I left home, I discovered the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, who played with words as no other poet before him. But his writing wasn’t funny at all, it was just rich and luminous. Here’s a verse from “The Sea and the Skylark”:

Left hand, off land, I hear the lark ascend,

His rash-fresh re-winded new-skeinèd score

In crisps of curl off wild winch whirl, and pour

And pelt music, till none’s to spill nor spend.

Before I read his work, it never occurred to me that language could be playful while conveying serious thoughts. Yet behind the serious message, you can always hear the joy!