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!
Twice-baked bread
Paximadia is clearly a Greek name for a traditional Greek bread, but it has a pacific Latin echo in that...
Faint-croaking frogs
Thoreau is notably patient in observing nature, able to stand still for half an hour or more, to let the...
Helen has second thoughts
Helen regrets her elopement with Paris after seeing him nearly killed by the husband she abandoned, only surviving because a...
Thrice condemned monster
Heaney's tripling summary of Grendel, the world's fear and monster: a guilt-fouled fiend and a God-cursed brute with a hall-watcher's hate. Thankfully,...
Fresh-ploughed field
Another line of poetry-in-prose in Dorothy's journal. I was struck by the sea described as a basin full to the...
Tempest-haunting birds
I picture scurf-surfing cormorants and carrion birds buffeted by winds in anticipation of sailors' corpses washing up on the wind-blasted...
Bright-tinted shrubs
Autumn alights with bright-tinted shrubs. And yes, you need to be on the alert to perceive their full beauty.
'A...
String-thin paths
A knife-edge precarity in this phrase. May your paths be broad and sure!
Source: Beowulf, Kevin Crossley-Holland, illus. by Charles Keeping (Oxford...
Pard-like stubble
I can only imagine this refers to a patchy or spotted colour combination, as 'pard' means leopard or panther, or...
Slit-pupilled eyes
The Countess lives in a sea of white cats who hang upon her every word, here looking up at her...
Raven-like croaks
Williamson's lovingly accurate study of otters includes many examples of the playfulness of these animals, be it with each other,...
Hill-sent echo
An inexplicable and even supernatural moment in the book that proves a turning point, snapping Jane out of her acquiescence...
Peak-wandering robbers
Another menace in the Mani region, though having heard so much of its lurking threats, Leigh Fermor and his wife...
Thick-walled word
While I like this idea, I can’t quite imagine a ‘thick-walled’ word. Trying some free association: Glop? Blather? Is it...
Moonacre Manor
This white horse flits in and out of the eponymous story: like the moon, illuminating when visible, but otherwise elusive. ...
Toy-town geniality
Something oddly and mildly sinister about this one. Perhaps stemming from a memory of the Stepford Wives.
See the
Tear-wringing phrases
Can you sense in this triologism that the moving eloquence of this politician is a little too practised and contrived?...
Vapour-ringed sun
I recall seeing more vapour-ringed moons than suns, but it may be that I look at the moon more than...
Gem-like brightness
A sudden burst of light after dullness, startling and enlivening the spirit.
'It was a sullen coldish Evening,...
Tear-shaped pellets
This is a Biblical land and so perhaps the tear-shaped scented cedar sap pellets came from Lebanon. Elsewhere the cedar...
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Interesting! Your triologisms remind me of the two-word kennings in Beowulf.