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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:The Joy of Lex
Notice:A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:THEBAY::SYSTEM
Created:Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1192
Total number of notes:42769

454.0. "Need Literary Detectives..." by MEIS::GORDON (To be 'new' - is that the main thing?) Fri Dec 11 1987 02:30

    	I recently finished "It" by that famous Nard Horror Writer and
    chose as my MAIL personal name the phrase:
    
    	"He thrusts his fists against the post and still insists
    	he sees the ghosts"
    
    	In the book, the phrase is described as a tongue twister for
    stutterers to practice.  Lo and behold, some person down the line,
    having the misfortune to receive a much-forwarded mail message that
    had passed through my mailbox, asked me if knew the whole poem from
    which the above line comes.
    
        Alas, I did not.  The person in question asserts that he knew the
    whole poem once upon a time, but has forgotten it. I suggested he ask
    here, but since he has not, and now my curiosity is aroused, I shall. 
    
    	Does anyone know the whole poem?
    
    						--Doug
    
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454.1here you go ...INK::KALLISRemember how ephemeral is Earth.Fri Dec 11 1987 14:1421
    The original quotation of it was in the book _Donovan's Brain_,
    by Kurt Siodmack [sp?], an occasional sf/horror writer.  In the
    book, a wealthy man's brain is kept alive after an accident and
    it develops the power to attempt telepathic dominance of the hero.
    To jam the telepathic input, the hero recited:
    
              Amidst the mists
              And coldest frosts,
              He thrusts his fists
              Against the posts
              And still inststs
              He sees the ghosts.
    
    ...over and over again.
    
    If there's a longer version, I'm unaware of it.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    
    
    P.S.  _It_ was a rather entertaining story, if long-winded.
454.2coincidenceHEART::KNOWLESInteresting if trueFri Dec 11 1987 15:2113
    Puts me in mind of the Robert Frost poem that ends:
    
    I have promises to keep
    And miles to go before I sleep.
    
    The rhythm, I think.
    
    As an odd coincidence, the Robert Frost piece featured in a
    none-too-good Charles Bronson movie that involved a kind of telepathy:
    the lines, delivered by 'phone, triggered off assassinations by 
    otherwise harmless people.

    b
454.3Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningREGENT::BROOMHEADDon't panic -- yet.Fri Dec 11 1987 18:283
    That wasn't telepathy; that was "Telefon" -- and it was post-hypnotic
    suggestion.
    							Ann B.