Challenge: Write a Mnemonic Poem!

This board is a composition workshop, like a writers' workshop: post your work with questions about style or vocabulary, comment on other people's work, post composition challenges on some topic or form, or just dazzle us with your inventive use of galliambics.
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Discipulus Tristis
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Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2008 2:17 pm

Challenge: Write a Mnemonic Poem!

Post by Discipulus Tristis »

Slavete grammatici,

I have a challenge for those of you who are inclined to wit and silly poetry: write a mnemonic rhyme to help remember some tricky grammatical rule. This was a very popular method for teaching grammar from the Middle Ages down to the early twentieth century, and I think it has a lot of untapped potential even for advanced readers of Latin and Greek.

I wrote the following poem long ago while studying Wheelock's Latin. It was designed to list the main ablative functions that require a preposition. I'm sure it doesn't cover ALL the ablatives that take prepositions (neither does it cover all the prepositions) but it helped me remember my notes on the first-year Latin exam. I submit it for your approval or censure, and I invite you all to do the same:

The Ablative Adventure
(or, The Preposition Mission)

For place from which use ab, ex, de;
While in and sub tell where you stay.
Use cum if you’re accompanied
Or if your manner is “with speed?.
Using ab when journey’s ended
Will tell by whom you were befriended;
And if some seek details from you,
Produce a treatise, de cursu!

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