A Cross to Bear

I wrote this at a writing conference. I want to know if it made you giggle and if you have suggestions on the syllable scheme.


Something in this syntax hates an X
It is least in every way but none
People cry when it appears in scrabble
And when dictionary editors
Reach it they throw back their heads and laugh
It does not possess the grim prestige
Or infamy of being last of all
Stuck at twenty-four it weeps alone:
“Why, oh why must I resign myself
To “no” boxes on official forms?
And dark corners of a child’s mind
Where the roman numerals are stored?
And why “Xylophone”? Why “Xylophone”?
Why is it that E had to receive
The words Exceptional Executive,
Exclaim Extraordinary and Exceed?"

Cute!

It did indeed make me giggle. Very creative. And I didn't notice this until after I read it, but the title is equally as amusing.

Suggestions on the syllables... Hmm. Well, at first I figured this was going to be iambic pentameter (like Shakespeare wrote, you know), and I was going to give you mad props for that. And I suppose it does follow it pretty closely, though there are some lines where it's a tad off, or awkward to put the stress on every other syllable.

Actually, iambic pentameter usually has 9-10 syllables, which goes with the X = 10 line. So that's pretty cool. But most of your lines have 9 syllables, and so when I reached the end and the last two lines contained ten, it felt too long, too wordy. Even one syllable can have an effect!

Also, I'd like to suggest that you add a line or two more. It felt incomplete to me, like X was going to resign with the comfort that it's the most commonly used variable in math, or something.

Oh! Just spotted something. You have a quote from X, but then you never closed it at the end, and you have quotes inside that quote that really should only have one 'apostrophe/single quotation mark', like so.

Otherwise, I thought this was very inventive and a cute little read. Good job!

Haha, very smart, but I do agree it could be longer. Maybe you could throw in some more x words. I don't really know what else to say about this, it's odd, but very unique. Keep up the good work.