Chance came, Charles came
carried in a basket.
They command the sea to free the water
and the prison to be set at liberty,
and a brave eight voices made words:
domine salvum fac something
gavel glory rang spong!
And Christ free the rest.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 21 February 1659/60.
Maybe you should leave Spong in caps… In (weird) context, I can’t help but think of the controversial Bishop Spong…
No, I specifically wanted to de-emphasize that potential association (which I also had), and just notice what a great-sounding word it was!
Hah! Well, I figured you would notice–impossible for a lot of readers not to notice it! And yes, it has a wonderful odd sound and is suggestive in the way of a Carrollian portmanteau word.