Thoughts Thad Wrought

Thoughts Thad Wrought
By Sidney Wu

Thaddeus Thomas thought out loud whilst thumbing his toupee:
“Though in a trice I sought and caught ten thousand cod
And thrust the throbbing throng into my trough I doubt
That’d thrill me through and through.

“The truth is that I’d rather tough the rough – or even rough the tough –
And bout drought out with trouble double
And tread through thatch both thick and thin
To throw my thread with trained, true twitch of switch
O’er thund’ring torrent or torpid trickle
And then pull taut the tangled twine
To catch and cache a single taupe-throated trout.”

With this, Thad tumbled from my couch, and there he shouted out,
“The thought! The thrill! The triumph of catching TROUT!”
…
…
Though thought-through thoughts are not Thad’s cup of tea,
He’s trusty in attending my anti-ichthy-therapy.
(There he’s taught his thoughts ought not be overly fishy.)



Background:
English, perhaps especially American English, is a terribly confusing meld of different languages. While I’m far from being a linguist, I am aware of English words with origins in Latin, Greek, French, German, and even other non-European languages (e.g: “tsunami” from Japanese). This leaves us with words that look amazingly similar but are vastly different in pronunciation. Since I was a child, I marveled at this fact, and somehow I distinctly remember the confusing triad: “though,” “thought,” and “through.” “Th” can be pronounced with a hard breathy sound (as in “thought”) or a softer buzzing sound (as in “though”). Furthermore, “ough” in this set of three words have three totally different pronunciations! Hence, since school-age, I’ve wanted for fun to create a sentence containing all three of these words.

In 8th grade I wrote a poem entitled “The Peddler” which played mainly with the words “peddle,” “petal,” and “pedal.” To me, even though it was part of an assignment, it was written in good fun. To my amazement, however, it won various school and regional awards.

Ever since that encouraging response to “The Peddler” I’ve wanted to write a poem playing on the three words “though,” “thought,” and “through.” Not until 1997 (in the second year of medical school while “studying,” no less) did I start making a list of words I wanted to include in that poem. Several attempts at putting the poem together were aborted along the way, and the great majority was completed much later in the summer of 2003 (probably, again, while I was supposed to be doing something else). Final touches bring it to its completion today (March 5, 2004) as I finish my on-call duties in the ICU as a resident physician!

This poem is not simply a “tongue-twister.” It’s meant to be more an “eye-twister” in that while it may be difficult to enunciate the words, to me it is even more gleefully difficult to interpret how the words should even be pronounced!
Enjoy the ridiculous rigors of the English language!


[June 21, 2005 note: Crazily, I was actually encouraged by several friends to try to get this poem published. Not believing that it would "make it" in an actual poetry journal, I submitted it to a few medical journals & even Reader's Digest..... nada! Oh well, here's my cheap shot at "publishing" it by putting it among prayer letters to trick people into reading it when they think they're reading something of actual value! haha! Hmmm... does this qualify as something that fulfills the desire of the prayer that heads this site? Perhaps it attests to the wild & crazy edge of the creative palette in our unfathomable Creator's hand. All praises to Him? Yes! ...and all eye-rolling to me!]

The Peddler (1988?)

A peddler who peddles bike pedals
Was a peddler also of rose petals.
He once peddled & said,
“What’s ‘dis life I has led,
To peddle these petals & pedals.”

Thus the peddler of petals & pedals.
Stopped peddling his pedals & petals.
“I will peddle some pets.
How much money I gets!”
Said the peddler of pets which he peddles.

Lucklessly the peddler of pets
Peddled only a set of two owlets.
The peddler was sad
And then he got mad
& now, his pets are full of pellets.