Title
1
1.
2.
3.
4.
2
5.
6.
7.
8.
3
9.
10.
11.
12.
4
13.
14.
15.
16.

Well it's almost certainly called 'Spring Romance among the Foxgloves' !

I must not look again at this until this proofing is finished!!!

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

Willpower!! It won't hurt to be left for a few days!

The proofing or the poem!

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

I normally jot my thoughts down and wait until others have had a go before I add anything, but as it's gone quiet, I'll start the ball rolling with a few of my thoughts. That said, I'm really struggling with this one.

Spring Romance Among the Foxgloves

1
1.
2. The sun glints over the ......................
3.
4.
2
5.
6. ............ around the cottage hover
7.
8.
3
9. Down here she comes, O ...........our cries,
10.
11.
12.
4
13.
14.
15.
16.

2 possibly glints sideways/slantwise across rather than over - some significance in the way letters THE are written, could be to do with white letters/block capitals? Doesn't look as though it scans like previous ones.

Yes, it could easily be "across" rather than "over". And yes, I'm sure the large "THE" is significant - I'd just typed that I couldn't work out how, when I realised that it's probably "hollow" as that would rhyme with "follow" at the end of line 3!

Spring Romance Among the Foxgloves

1
1. The ..........doves..............their
2. The sun glints over/across the hollow
3. And ................of flowers.........to follow
4.
2
5.
6. ............ around the cottage hover
7.
8.
3
9. Down here she comes, O ...........our cries,
10.
11.
12.
4
13.
14.
15.
16.

Could line 16 be:
‘Salutes and hymns my peers’ or something similar?

I agree about "Salutes and hymns my..", but I can't work out the significance of that small "R". And is that a wasp at the end of the line? My guess is that whatever the final word is, it rhymes with line 13, but as I can't unravel line 13, it's not helping me!

Spring Romance Among the Foxgloves

1
1. The ..........doves..............their
2. The sun glints over/across the hollow
3. And ................of flowers.........to follow
4.
2
5.
6. ............ around the cottage hover
7.
8.
3
9. Down here she comes, O ...........our cries,
10.
11.
12.
4
13.
14. Nearest to angels in creation
15. Heaven on high with its ....tation
16. Salutes and hymns my .................

I think the last line is "Salutes and hymns my peerless ... " something, but what? I don't really recognise it as any insect in particular, and can't even think what idea it could be conveying in this context.

Oh, and line 13 seems to start "Oh purest"

Agree purest at start of L 13

Could it be a Queen bee? that long abdomen is typical of a queen - which means it ends 'peerless queen' and the first line of the stanza (l 13) seems to end 'een' as well - think they all go abba.

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

I believe you're right about the queen, abbeybufo, especially as line 13 looks as if it ends in an 'een' sound.

Sorry for the delay, I had a bright idea for some notebooks and became rather single minded. I've come to a boring bit now (cutting everything to size), so welcoming some diversions!

This one is really stopping us in our tracks, it's going to be interesting to see what the original solvers made of it. This is what we have so far.

Could that man in line 4 be a "waker upper"?

Spring Romance Among the Foxgloves

1
1. The ..........doves..............their
2. The sun glints over/across the hollow
3. And scents of flowers waking up to follow
4.
2
5.
6. ............ around the cottage hover
7.
8.
3
9. Down here she comes, O ...........our cries,
10.
11.
12.
4
13. Oh purest.............
14. Nearest to angels in creation
15. Heaven on high with its ....tation
16. Salutes and hymns my peerless

I wonder if the chap in L 4 is a 'Wait' - then the scents of flowers would wait to follow...

I've got my corrections done to the end of Chapter 4, so the proofing itself is done; it's just a question of alterations/corrections to the actual text now...so I should be able to have more of a look at this over the weekend. I've been fairly strong-minded and resisted peeping too much!

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

It certainly sounds feasible, although I do quite like the idea of the flowers waking up in the Spring. I wouldn't like to choose between the two options.

I like the idea of the Wait in Line 4. I just wish I knew what the demmed item in line 1 is. I can't shake off the notion that it's a tambourine, which makes no sense at all

This one is a real toughie!

There are definitely doves there in the middle of the line - I wondered if it was meant to be a turtle, so 'The turtle doves...', but it says to take the R out and put an H in ... and it doesn't really look like a turtle, so I'm still stuck...

And if that's a boot or shoe further on in the same line, where does the I we need to replace with an E come from?


(In better news, the book is now fully corrected and going to the printers tomorrow, so I might have a chance to look at this more thoroughly now.)

ETA and I think it's
2 The Sun glints through the hollow

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

And I can't get past it being a panama hat!

1
1. The ..........doves..............their
2. The sun glints over/across the hollow
3. And scents of flowers waking up to follow
4.
2
5.
6. ............ around the cottage hover
7.
8.
3
9. Down here she comes, O ...........our cry,
10. See haloes around her tresses
11. .....breath of heaven my love...............
12.
4
13. Oh purest.............
14. Nearest to angels in creation
15. Heaven on high with its ....tation
16. Salutes and hymns my peerless

I did think boater - but still cant see where subtracting an R and adding an H makes sense.

_________________
to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e.cummings
http://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

Does line 5 end WAIT, line 8 seems to end GATE and they should probably rhyme.

As for the doves - there is a collared dove and that thing could just possibly be a collar but then the - R + H doesn't seem to make sense