Look out, Longfellow

» Posted by Alissa on Feb 7, 2012 in My travels | 4 comments

New England is famed for its poets, so it shouldn’t be surprising that there are poets hiding in all sorts of unlikely places in New England.

I returned from a trip to Maine just over a week ago, and during that time I spied some poetry in unlikely places. On the drive up both the highway signs in New Hampshire and Maine delivered messages to motorists in rhyme. I can’t for the life of me remember New Hampshire’s clever little poems, but the highway signs in Maine flashed, “Ice and Snow, Take it Slow” warnings.

One of the perks of the hotel where I was staying was a free Maine delicacy, a whoopie pie. This whoopie pie came with a little bonus, a rhyming verse:

In case you can’t quite make out the poem printed on the package, it reads:

“A Whoopie Pie’s a wondrous thing,

Like newborn pups or early Spring.

It fills the mouth with rapture sweet,

This yummy chocolate sandwich treat.”

I am happy to report, that there is truth in whoopie pie jingles.

I did not happen to pick up a copy of Rochester Times, on my trip, but apparently, if I had, I would have found some poetry in the crime blotter section. Apparently, John Nolan who writes the paper’s crime blotter section has a habit of dressing up dry police reports and coming up with clever rhymes such as, “There is a din on Barker Court, it sounds like dropping couches, or demolition or a fight, replete with oohhs and ouches.” You can read more about the Rochester Times’ poetic crime blotter in this article.

I don’t think any of these unlikely poets will be taking the place of Longfellow, but I wonder what it is about New England that inspires so many to turn to poetry.