| 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 | 
    	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
    
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines | 
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 454.1 | here you go ... | INK::KALLIS | Remember how ephemeral is Earth. | Fri Dec 11 1987 14:14 | 21 | 
|     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.
 | |||||
| 454.2 | coincidence | HEART::KNOWLES | Interesting if true | Fri Dec 11 1987 15:21 | 13 | 
|     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
 | |||||
| 454.3 | Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening | REGENT::BROOMHEAD | Don't panic -- yet. | Fri Dec 11 1987 18:28 | 3 | 
|     That wasn't telepathy; that was "Telefon" -- and it was post-hypnotic
    suggestion.
    							Ann B.
 | |||||