Learning To Write

A funny poem, one which could be considered a riddle, by Berton Braley. The poems refer to a typewriter where the keys are not aligned with the letters that are being typed. The same can be applied to a keyboard that has gone wonky. What you type and what shows up on paper or your screen are two different things.

If you follow the poem to the end, you will have a riddle to figure out. It is a poem that is written in code. A poem that will make you smile as you read it. But one that can be used as an analogy to life - sometimes our choices and decisions turn out in a way that we don't count on. But just like any riddle if we stop and think about it, we can figure it out!

Another analogy to this poem is what people say and what they actually do. In our lives, we will run into people who say one thing but do another. It is confusing at times and we have to reflect on their words and then observe their actions. In your life strive to show that your words are the same as your actions, otherwise, you will be like the old typewriter hitting a key and typing something different.

Enjoy this poem but also reflect on life as you read it.

Funny Famous Poems /

Learning To Write
(Can You Translate?)
Poet: Berton Braley

My ink eraser's worn quite through
From rubbing out mistakes
Which, spite of all that I can do,
My fool typewriter makes.
For when I try to make an "a"
(One has to write a few)
In some quite dark and devious way
I spell it with a "q."
Qnd thqt, qs you cqn plqinly see,
Is likely to embqrrqss me.

Now, "e" 's a letter used so oft
It surely seems that I
Should find it really very soft
To handle cleverly.
And yet, when writing in a sweat,
I find - a dreadful bore -
That where I wanted "e" I get
Instead of "e" a "4."
Th4 which, as anyon4 may not4,
Do4s not improv4 what I "hav4 wrot4."

Then "t" and "y" or "y" and "u,
Which seem beneath a spell,
Transpose and get themselves askew
The same as "p" and "1."
The"," and the"?"
Get changed about in place,
Until you'd think that in the dark
I'd tried my words to trace.
Yhis syrange pecupiaritt
Is not? you know? a thing of glee.

Then oftentimes a "b" I find
When what I want is "n,"
Or with quotation marks in mind
I get a "2" — and then
To that I add this little /
When I but sought a .
And other errors, too, are mine,
I count them by the myriad.
And when my little sobg is sung,
I'm often forced to mutter, 2STUBG2/
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