Pithy, evocative imagery in three-legged microcosms of meaning. Having coined the term ‘triologism’ I believe this to be the only collection of these tum-tee-tum phrases in the universe. Updated Tuesdays … triologism day!
Variations on a theme of chaos and confusion
Luan, which can signify a rich spectrum of chaos, confusion, mess and hubbub, is wonderfully combined with several double characters.
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Handsomely-bound journal
The first entry of a journal which provided the material for some of the best travel writing of the 20th...
Ribbons blue
There are many fine details in this lovely book, and the young girl finds signals of invisible hands arranging thoughtful,...
Blue-black vault
Lopez uses vivid and spare language to describe the equally spare beauty of the Arctic. I liked this image.
‘Blue-black vault...
Sweet-running river
Flowing like the sweet-running river it evokes, a meandering metaphor for Hector's strength and movement, likened to a thoroughbred horse...
Thick-fingered roads
A chunky junction? Wide roads converging on a roundabout, an original description of a transport node.
Source: Osip Mandelstam,...
Brick-coloured sunsets
Something warming in this, until you see the context. I recall 'brick-coloured sunsets' tinted by a haze of pollution in...
Green-leaf invocations
Surely a practice worth borrowing or reviving? Leigh Fermor describes a woman beginning each verse of her song with such...
Sponge-bag trousers
As I clearly move in the wrong circles, this was a revelation to me. 'Sponge-bag trousers' is the name given,...
Horn-pronged gables
This reminds me of some of the pointed and upturning gables and eaves in traditional Chinese and south-east Asian architecture.
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Glee-singing competition
There is something a little dated about this description of someone's clothing, but I liked the 'glee-singing competition'. I had...
Technicolor-green fields
Fermín is a character who has done time as a tramp, and perhaps because of the hunger he's suffered, he...
Fairy-like fingers
Mr. Rochester falls in love with Jane: her excellent mind and independent spirit, as well as her petite proportions, here...
Here comes Hera
One goddess you should never cross, quick to rouse to wrath and terrible in her exactions. Divinely, drop-dead gorgeous, of course.
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Reed-fringed banks
An image of lazy summer afternoons messing about on rivers.
Source: Arthur Ransome, Coot Club (London: Jonathan Cape, 2009 (1934)),...
Flat-bottomed clouds
Leigh-Fermor's continent-straddling meander encompasses pre-war scenes of breath-taking bucolic beauty. A decade after his peregrination this world had been turned...
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