Login   Sign Up 



 

Colour Sense

by Mickey 

Posted: 04 June 2014
Word Count: 166
Summary: A comment on the pretentious descriptions for colours dreamt up by the fashion industry to sell more clothes I wrote this a while ago but I don't think I ever uploaded it


Font Size
 


Printable Version
Print Double spaced


The fashionistas and their sisters
will look at you and say
“What kind of twerp’ll
dress in purple – purple’s so passé?”
 
And they will turn their backs on you
or stare at you and frown
because you thought what they call ‘taupe’
is really nothing of the sort
but just a shade of brown
 
and there is simply no excuse,
when they’d describe their outfit ‘puce’,
for calling it instead dark pink
(although that might be what you think)
 
Beige has never been the rage (but ‘biscuit’ is okay)
and ‘pumice’ is the name today
for what we used to call light grey
in this year’s new enlightened way
on every catwalk stage
 
But when you’re looking through the rows
of all the new designer clothes
think, before you throw away
the stuff you bought just yesterday,
 
though pink may fill you with dismay
and puce is what you want today
that nice dark pink was what you chose
and ‘puce’ was Granny’s ‘Damask Rose’
 






Favourite this work Favourite This Author


Comments by other Members



Mickey at 15:05 on 04 June 2014  Report this post
I was recently asked for a copy of one of my earliest poems (‘The Infidelities of Janet the Gannet’) and when I got out my ‘portfolio’ (ooh-er! Its actually just two A4 ring binders), I found several pieces that I’d forgotten about.  Some of these made me laugh and got me thinking about Write Words again.  I’ve found that I still seem to be a fully paid-up member by virtue of some Direct Debit arrangement that I’d also forgotten about, so I thought I’d rejoin the poetry group and try to write some more.  I hope that I can and, if so, that you might find them amusing.
 

James Graham at 20:09 on 04 June 2014  Report this post
Welcome back! Poetry Group members do quite often disappear and come back later. But when they do come back, it's as if they've never been away! I'll post a comment soon.

James.

James Graham at 20:43 on 05 June 2014  Report this post
Very entertaining. A big part of humorous verse is doing what you can’t do in humorous prose – make funny rhymes. Twerp’ll and purple are brilliant – positively Byronic. Another trick is finding a rhyme for a word that doesn’t normally rhyme with anything. I mean a full two-syllable rhyme: anybody can rhyme ‘purple’ with ‘simple’ or ‘humble’, just the –le bit. My rhyming dictionary gives no exact rhyme for ‘purple’. So eleven marks out of ten for this.
 
Most of the other rhymes are easier ones (they’d have to be!) but you never show signs of forcing an awkward, not quite suitable word on to the end just to make the rhyme. It’s all very natural.
 
Humorous verse has to have a skipping rhythm. Dum-de-dum is fine. As far as I can see – or rather hear - your rhythm is perfect all through.
 
And like all good comic verse your poem makes a serious point. Doesn’t have to be deadly serious, just a point worth making. In this case it’s about fashion: the latest is always the best and anything else is so last week, even though last week and last century their latest was the best too. It’s also about the use of language to pretty up ordinary stuff.
 
Just to come back to rhyme. It’s slightly disappointing that you didn’t find some really clever rhymes for ‘taupe’. Depends how you pronounce it, though. I would pronounce the vowel sound ‘aw’, but that way almost the only thing that rhymes with it is Scunthorpe! But if you pronounce it with a round ‘o’ (as the rhyming dictionary does) it rhymes with scope, dope, hope, mope, soap, telescope, misanthrope and many others. It would still be a bit of a challenge, though!
 
Good to see your work again, and to have another look at some of the poems in your archive.

James.

V`yonne at 10:51 on 11 June 2014  Report this post
That really made me smile laugh It's a perennial argument in our house as to what constitutes grey/mushroom/ taupe and beige. My hubby calls them all 'brown' -- and I frown wink I am not usually a fan or rhyme but it works best in comic poems and I think your inventive rhyme for purple was ingenius -- my hat's off to you!

I was looking at paint ranges recently. 'Soft pebbles'? People get paid for that!!

Mickey at 15:34 on 11 June 2014  Report this post
James and Oonah, thank you both for your comments.  I thought you could only pronounce taupe with an ‘aw’ James - a 'tope' is a small shark isn't it?  However, I had intended the preceding ‘thought’ and following ‘sort’ to link all three words together in a kind of assonantal (?) ‘near’ rhyme.  As for the ‘soft pebbles’ paint, Oonah, you have reminded me of the following:
 
I’m fed up with me bedroom walls –
They’re done in boring cream.
I thought that they would look quite nice,
re-painted Chocolate Green.
 
I went down to the Dulux shop,
where they’ve a big machine,
for matching any colour known –
I asked for Chocolate Green.
 
The lady trained in mixing paint,
snarled back with irritation,
“Chocolate Green’s a pigment, Sir,
of your imagination”
 
I’d completely forgotten that one.  Thank you for reminding me and for your kind comments on ‘Colour Sense’  Its good to be back!
 

James Graham at 19:51 on 12 June 2014  Report this post
Proves that dictionaries can be wrong - my Penguin Rhyming Dictionary puts 'taupe' in with rope, soap etc. In this instance it's a bit of a dope! Thanks for 'Chocolate Green'. More, please.

James.

TassieDevil at 21:05 on 12 June 2014  Report this post
Hi Mickey,
Hope you don't mind me dropping into the group as I'm not a member. I do enjoy humour and I do hate pretentiousness so your poems were both most enjoyable. If I might be so bold, I would compare them to giving me the same sense of fun as do early Pam Ayers poetry. And she hasn't done too badly over the years.
I found the ideas and rhymes to be clever and presented some thought provoking concepts on colour (which is subjective anyway). And I still maintain that the 'pink' shirt I wore as a teacher one day in Australia was chartreuse. After all no self-respecting Australian male would ever wear pink.
Alan 

desdillon at 09:56 on 17 June 2014  Report this post
Hi Mickey

like this poem - it's a theme I resonate with - elitism and snobbery. And the certainty of values these characters in your poem have. The older I get the more I see that the history of all arts is the history of snobbery. Right up my street this one. To a Louse - Robert Burns.

Bazz at 20:18 on 17 June 2014  Report this post
Hi, a really neat poem full of fun word play. the rhymes are strong and the subject different, enjoyed it a lot.


To post comments you need to become a member. If you are already a member, please log in .