The Poetry of R.E. Slater

"Autobiographies of great nations are written in three manuscripts – a book of deeds, a book of words, and a book of art. Of the three, I would choose the latter as truest testimony." - Sir Kenneth Smith, Great Civilisations

"I must write each day without fail, not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine." - Leo Tolstoy

I have never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again. - John Updike

"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it." - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

[Note - If any article requires updating or correction please notate this in the comment section. Thank you. - res]

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Comparing the Novels of Emily and Charlotte Brontë

Comparing the Novels of

Emily and Charlotte Brontë

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT-5

I was wondering the other day whether between the Brontë novels of Wuthering Heights by Emily, or Jane Eyre by her older sister Charlotte, which novel is the more raw, the more emotive, the more emotionally torn? Let's begin with a general introduction, a few of their poems, some helpful references, and finally, a few observations to see if we can answer this query.

R.E. Slater

Charlotte, Anne & Emily Brontë -

Walking in the footsteps of the Brontë Sisters

by MemorySeekers

Lawrence Olivier & Merle Oberon

Wuthering Heights (1939)

Jane Eyre (1943)

Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine

Painting of the Brontë Sisters by
their brother Branwell Brontë

Their brother, Branwell Brontë, painted his three sisters who are, from left to right: Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë. Branwell did not paint himself in this portrait. The National Portrait Gallery, London.

References

Emily Brontë - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Bront%C3%AB

Wuthering Heights - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights

Charlotte Brontë - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Bront%C3%AB

Jane Eyre - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre

Select Poems

No Coward Soul Is Mine

(1846)

by Emily Brontë

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven’s glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.

O God within my breast,
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life - that in me has rest,
As I - undying Life - have power in Thee!

*The poem, written shortly before Emily’s death, is an astonishing assertion of raw, defiant inner strength - the same elemental forces which animates her fierce novel, Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff and Catherine are not sentimental lovers; they are cosmically eternal presences forcefully speaking of “undying life” entwined beyond mortality forever and ever. The exceedingly jealous God within her breast mirrors the novel’s wild spirituality, its refusal to be tamed.

Remembrance

(1845)

by Emily Brontë

Cold in the earth - and the deep snow piled above thee,

Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,
Severed at last by Time’s all-severing wave?

No later light has lightened up my heaven,
No second morn has ever shone for me;
All my life’s bliss from thy dear life was given -
All my life’s bliss is in the grave with thee.

*This is the emotional shadow of Catherine and Heathcliff. The imagery of snow, distance, eternal grief, and undying love which perfectly embodies Heathcliff’s obsessive mourning. Wuthering Heights is less about romantic fulfillment than it is about eternal, haunted attachment. “Remembrance” is to Wuthering Heights what a cold wind is to the moors - eternal, echoing, unrelenting.

Life

(1846)

by Charlotte Brontë

Life, believe, is not a dream

So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.

Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall?

*Unlike Emily’s tempest, Charlotte’s verse carries hope through suffering. Her novel, Jane Eyre, is marked by a myriad of personal sufferings and trials - orphanhood, betrayal, and loss - yet Jane chooses moral resilience over despair. “The shower will make the roses bloom” captures her inner steadfastness and capacity for growth through hardship.

The Teacher’s Monologue

(excerpt)

by Charlotte Brontë

I dreamed once more - for I had dreamed in youth,
Of something which a word of mine might do;
Of hopes which, being once my own, had fled,
But, lingering, left behind them joy or pain -
The fevered pulse of a too burning brain.

I dreamed of love; it was a passionate thought,
And yet it was a soft one…

*This lesser-known poem mirrors Jane’s inner longing - restrained, intelligent, and moral, yet deeply passionate. Charlotte writes of love as a private fire, not an inner, violent storm: something deeply felt within, yet never allowed to consume the self entirely. This quiet, steady burn is exactly the energy of Jane’s expressed voice - self-respecting, yearning, resilient.

Public Comments

"For me, Wuthering Heights is by far the best. I expected Jane Eyre to be better since it's so well known, but to be honest I found it quite boring. On the contrary, I expected Wuthering Heights to be a regular love story, but it absolutely amazed me. I definitely did not expect what I read. It is now my favourite book. It is incomparable to Jane Eyre for me." - Anon (found on Reddit)

"I don't know why but I have a feeling that people get turned off by depressing books and that is the reason that Wuthering Heights is under-appreciated by so many people. The story is compelling because of its negativities. The evil that floats in the book actually resembles the evil in all of us. It is there and we ignore it. But when we have to read something that tells us more about it, we don't like it. The characters in Wuthering Heights are original because Emily has portrayed them in such a way that they have nothing to hide from the audience. She has bared the truth of humanity in every single of them. These characters, if looked closely can be related to so many people in our lives that it's not funny. By no means am I implying that Jane Eyre doesn't do the same or is not worthy. It is a very good read and has it's own redeeming qualities. However, Wuthering Heights is the one that is out for my heart." - Yukti (Goodreads)

Opening Statement

The novels, Wuthering Heights (1847), by Emily Bronte, and Jane Eyre (1847), by Charlotte Bronte, each stand as emotional opposites, forged in the same furnace but tempered very differently from one another. Here are four qualities which may help measure the differences.

1. Rawness of Emotion

Wuthering Heights is the wilder, more feral of the two.
Emily Brontë writes as though ripping open the human heart - no filters, no moral comfort. The passions between Heathcliff and Catherine burn with cruelty, obsession, longing, and revenge. It is as elemental as the wind, moors, and storms Emily experienced at her homeland. For Emily, love is destructive, not redemptive.

“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
Jane Eyre, by contrast, is deeply emotional but much more contained.
Jane’s love for Rochester is deeply passionate, but it’s mediated by her (father's) constant moral conscience, self-respect, and spiritual vision. Her inner turmoil is expressed through a keen self-awareness and an intense, internal moral struggle rather than raw, unmediated passion as expressed by Charlotte's sister Emily in Wuthering Heights.

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”

✅ Verdict: Wuthering Heights is the more raw in emotional expression.

2. Psychological Depth and Inner Tornness

Wuthering Heights externalizes deep, personal pain - its characters enact their torment through vengeance, cruelty, and wild, forbidden love. Heathcliff’s interiority is volcanic but often displayed by his destructive acts. The book feels like an open wound.
Jane Eyre internalizes Jane’s psychological journey. Her broad interior conflicts between desire, conscience, dignity, and faith, make her personal story more of a moral and psychological Bildungsroman.(eg, a novel depicting one's significant formative years or spiritual education). She bleeds more quietly - but all the more deeply.

✅ Verdict: Jane Eyre is more introspectively torn, while Wuthering Heights is more explosively torn.

3. Tone and Emotional Texture

Wuthering Heights: gothic storm, elemental, bitter winds, seething, unredeemed pain. The world is harsh, unyielding, and soaked in passion and death.
Jane Eyre: gothic as well, but tempered by reason, hope, and eventual redemption. Its pain is purposeful, shaping the self.

✅ Verdict: Wuthering Heights feels more emotive in texture - it does not offer comfort or resolution in the way Jane Eyre eventually does.

4. Moral and Emotional Resolution

Wuthering Heights ends with a haunting ambiguity - death may or may not bring peace, but love remains wild and untamed.
Jane Eyre ends with reconciliation and balance: love and dignity united, passion redeemed.

✅ Verdict: If we measure “tornness” by unresolved wounds, Wuthering Heights wins. If we measure it by the depth of the struggle toward selfhood, Jane Eyre has its own quiet power.

Comparative Table

Feature	Wuthering Heights	Jane Eyre
Emotional expression	Ferocious, unmediated, destructive	Controlled, moral, reflective
Psychological tornness	Explosive, externalized	Internalized, morally complex
Tone	Dark, stormy, tragic	Gothic but redemptive
Resolution	Ambiguous, unresolved	Harmonious, earned
Overall feel	Raw, wild, elemental	Measured, introspective, resilient

Observation

If you’re seeking the most raw, emotive, and torn in a visceral sense - the kind that rips apart the soul rather than heals - Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is the more brutal and emotionally feral novel.
If you’re drawn to a quieter but emotively profound inner tornness - such as the battle of a broken heart and conflicted conscience - Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre has the greater interior depth.

Many readers feel that Wuthering Heights is the storm, while Jane Eyre is the furnace. One consumes the world, the other refines the soul.

If Wuthering Heights is the storm, the quotes below are its thunderclaps.

If Jane Eyre is the furnace, the quotes are its steady, defiant flames.

Supporting Quotes from the Novels

Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights (1847)

A wild, tempestuous, and haunting love.

1. Love as Obsession

“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
- Catherine Earnshaw

“I cannot live without my soul.”
- Heathcliff

“If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”
- Catherine Earnshaw

2. Rage and Torment

“I have not broken your heart - you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”
- Heathcliff

“I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is, or should be, an existence of yours beyond you.”
- Heathcliff

“I have to remind myself to breathe - almost to remind my heart to beat!”
- Heathcliff

3. Gothic Wilderness

“He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
- Catherine Earnshaw

“Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind - not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself - but as my own being.”
- Catherine Earnshaw

“I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped in the flags! In every cloud, in every tree - filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day - I am surrounded with her image!”
- Heathcliff

🌀 The language of Wuthering Heights is wild and feverish - love as an elemental force that consumes rather than heals.

Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre (1847)

A fierce, moral, and interior love.

1. Love as Freedom

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
- Jane Eyre

“Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? - a machine without feelings? Do you think because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!”
- Jane Eyre

“I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you.”
- Jane Eyre

2. Passion with Conscience

“I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape.”
- Jane Eyre

“I would always rather be happy than dignified.”
- Jane Eyre

“I am not an angel,” I asserted; “and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself.”
- Jane Eyre

3. Gothic Interior

“Reader, I married him.”
- Jane Eyre

“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.”
- Jane Eyre

“I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal - as we are!”
- Jane Eyre

🔥 The language of Jane Eyre burns inwardly - love as moral courage, freedom, and spiritual equality rather than annihilation.

Final Summary Contrast

Theme	Wuthering Heights	Jane Eyre
Love	Consuming, destructive, obsessive	Liberating, moral, self-respecting
Voice	Fevered, stormy, Gothic wilderness	Fierce but measured, interior monologue
Characters	Heathcliff & Catherine - entwined & damned	Jane & Rochester - torn but redemptive
Emotional Tone	A Wild tempest	A Steady flame
Signature quote	“I cannot live without my soul.”	“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.”

Wednesday, October 15, 2025

ChatGPT - The Song of Gilgamesh

The Song of Gilgamesh

by ChatGPT

I. The King of Uruk

In Uruk’s walls the king stood tall,
A giant born of god and clay,
With restless heart and iron will,
He bent the world to his sway.

The people sighed beneath his hand,
And to the gods their cries were cast,
“Send one to match his might and pride,
That this fierce storm may break at last.”

II. Enkidu of the Wilds

From sacred clay the gods did form
A man of earth, of breath, of bone.
Enkidu roamed where lions fed,
His heart untamed, his spirit grown.

But love and song the wild unmade,
And to the city he was led.
He met the king in battle fierce,
And brothers rose where blood was shed.

III. The Cedar Forest

“Let us go where cedars rise,”
Said Gilgamesh with burning fire.
“To fell the beast, to carve our names,
Upon the bark of gods’ desire.”

Humbaba roared — the forest shook —
Yet two hearts struck as one bright flame.
The monster fell, the forest wept,
And men returned with glory’s name.

IV. The Bull of Heaven

Ishtar came with silken hand,
“Be mine, O king, O flame of might.”
But scorned, she summoned Heaven’s bull
To turn their day to endless night.

They struck the beast; its fury bled.
But gods remembered every wrong.
Enkidu, beloved of Gilgamesh,
Fell silent where he once was strong.

V. The Wanderer

The king now roamed the sunless lands,
Where scorpions guard the gates of dusk.
He sought Utnapishtim’s shore,
Where death is hushed and ages rust.

“Tell me the path to endless breath,”
Cried Gilgamesh beneath the stars.
The old one whispered, “None shall live
Beyond the hands of death’s bright bars.”

VI. The Serpent’s Theft

Yet in the deep, a plant of life
Lay waiting in the shadowed stream.
He seized the gift, his hope renewed,
His heart alight with mortal dream.

But from the dark, a serpent came,
It took the flower, shed its skin.
And Gilgamesh, with empty hands,
Stood older than he’d ever been.

VII. The Walls of Uruk

Back to Uruk’s shining gate
The weary king returned once more.
He touched the stones his hands had raised,
And felt their weight, their ancient core.

“No god am I,” he softly spoke,
“Nor shall my body ever stay.
But these proud walls, these deeds of men,
Will sing my name when I’m away.”

Epilogue

So ends the tale of mortal might,
Of love and loss, of gods and men.
The oldest song the clay can hold
Still hums beneath the desert wind.

- ChatGPT

✨ Themes and Legacy

Mortality and Meaning: Even the mightiest must face death.
Friendship: Enkidu humanizes Gilgamesh, changing him from tyrant to hero.
Wisdom through Loss: True greatness is not in living forever, but in living well.
Cultural Echo: The flood story in this epic predates and influenced later tales, including the story of Noah.

An Abridged Retelling of

The Epic of Gilgamesh

by ChatGPT

Importance: It is one of humanity’s oldest remembered stories, dating back over 4,000 years.

Date: The earliest written Sumerian tablets are around c. 2100 BCE; the earliest standardized version is around c. 1200 BCE from Akkad.

Place: The source of the Legend originates from within Ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).

Why it endures: Because it tells the timeless human story of love, death, and the search for meaning.

🌿 1. The Mighty King of Uruk

Long ago, in the city of Uruk, there ruled a king named Gilgamesh — two-thirds god and one-third human. He was powerful and wise, but also arrogant. His people cried out to the gods for relief from his pride and tyranny.

🐂 2. The Wild Man, Enkidu

The gods responded by creating Enkidu, a wild man of the steppe, strong and free, living among animals. A temple priestess tamed him through kindness and love, and he came to Uruk to challenge Gilgamesh.

The two men wrestled fiercely — neither could win. And so, they became best friends, brothers in spirit.

🪓 3. The Cedar Forest

Eager for glory, Gilgamesh persuaded Enkidu to journey to the Cedar Forest, home of Humbaba, a monstrous guardian. Together they defeated Humbaba with courage and divine help, cutting down the great cedars and bringing the wood back to Uruk.

Their fame grew — but so did the gods’ displeasure.

💔 4. The Bull of Heaven and Enkidu’s Death

The goddess Ishtar fell in love with Gilgamesh, but when he rejected her, she sent the Bull of Heaven to punish him. Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed the bull.

For this insult to the gods, the council of heaven declared that Enkidu must die. He fell ill and cursed his fate. Gilgamesh wept bitterly over the loss of his friend.

🕊 5. The Quest for Immortality

Stricken by grief and terrified of his own death, Gilgamesh set out on a journey to find eternal life. He crossed deserts and seas to find Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Great Flood — the Mesopotamian Noah — who had been granted immortality by the gods.

Utnapishtim told him:

“The gods gave eternal life to me alone. Death is the fate of all mortals.”

He offered Gilgamesh a test — to stay awake for six days and seven nights — but Gilgamesh failed. Still, Utnapishtim revealed the secret of a plant that could restore youth.

🐍 6. The Serpent and the Return

Gilgamesh found the plant, but as he bathed in a cool spring, a serpent stole it away, shedding its skin and slithering off. Gilgamesh wept again — but this time, more wisely. He returned to Uruk, realizing immortality belongs to the gods.

🏛 7. The End of the Journey

Standing atop the great walls of Uruk, Gilgamesh admired what he had built.

He understood that human deeds, friendships, and the memory we leave behind are what endure, not eternal life.

“Look at the walls of Uruk,” he said. “They will outlast me. This is my immortality.”

The Epic Of Gilgamesh In Sumerian

by Peter Pringle

The Epic of Gilgamesh - Sumerian Mythology

by "See U in History"

What are the Oldest Remembered Legends?

by ChatGPT

🏺 1. The “Epic of Gilgamesh” (c. 2100–1200 BCE, Mesopotamia)

Origin: Ancient Sumeria (Uruk, in modern Iraq)
Written form: c. 2100 BCE on clay tablets in cuneiform (Old Babylonian versions); standardized around 1200 BCE.
Language: Sumerian and Akkadian.
Plot: Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, seeks immortality after the death of his friend Enkidu.
Themes: Friendship, mortality, gods and humans, the flood narrative.

✅ Why it matters:

Widely regarded as the world’s oldest surviving literary work.
Contains a flood story that predates the biblical Noah narrative.
Survived as both oral myth and written epic.

🌊 2. Aboriginal Australian Flood and Landscape Myths (possibly 10,000+ years old)

Origin: Indigenous peoples of Australia.
Estimated age: At least 10,000 years, possibly older.
Medium: Oral storytelling traditions (Dreamtime).
Content: Stories describe rising sea levels and the flooding of land bridges—now corroborated by geological evidence.

✅ Why it matters:

These oral traditions encode accurate environmental memory over millennia.
They may be the oldest continuously told stories in human history.

https://www.veniceclayartists.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Galleries-Kimberley-Found.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Wurdi_Youang.jpg

https://www.uwosh.edu/coehs/cmagproject/ethnomath/legend/images/waynab.jpg

🐍 3. The Descent of Inanna (c. 1900–1600 BCE, Sumeria)

Origin: Sumerian city-states.
Plot: Inanna (Ishtar), goddess of love and war, journeys into the underworld and dies, then returns to life.
Themes: Death and rebirth, feminine power, cosmic order.

✅ Why it matters:

One of the oldest myths of descent and resurrection, influencing later myths (Persephone, Osiris, Jesus).

https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/api/collection/v1/iiif/321910/1825362/main-image

⛵ 4. The Pyramid Texts & Egyptian Creation Myths (c. 2400 BCE)

Origin: Old Kingdom Egypt.
Content: Creation myths, afterlife journeys, sun god Ra, Osiris myth cycle.
Medium: Hieroglyphic inscriptions inside pyramids.

✅ Why it matters:

Some of the earliest religious texts ever written.
Echo oral traditions that likely go back much further.

https://egymonuments.gov.eg/media/2795/_dsc8493.jpg?center=0.39189189189189189%2C0.5113122171945701&height=423&mode=crop&rnd=133885009530000000&width=645

https://study.com/cimages/multimages/16/357px-nun_raises_the_sun2197777580541391344.jpg

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c13cc00442627a08632989/1576335206212-XYPXPMFUF3463VTQDTV1/unaspyramidtexts.JPG

🏞 5. Indo-European and Vedic Creation Hymns (c. 1500–1200 BCE)

Origin: Ancient India.
Text: Rig Veda (Nasadiya Sukta).
Themes: Cosmic origins, the birth of the universe from the “non-existent.”
Medium: Oral hymns later written in Sanskrit.

✅ Why it matters:

Among the oldest surviving religious-philosophical hymns.
Still recited today in traditional Vedic ceremonies.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Rigveda_MS2097.jpg

https://img.youtube.com/vi/qPcasmn0cRU/0.jpg

https://cdn.exoticindia.com/images/products/original/books-2019-014/naw399g.jpg

🌍 6. Other Ancient Story Traditions with Deep Time Roots

Greek myths (e.g., Titanomachy, c. 800 BCE — but rooted in earlier Indo-European myth).
Biblical Genesis (compiled c. 6th–5th century BCE, drawing from earlier Mesopotamian sources).
Chinese flood myths (Yu the Great, c. 2000 BCE oral roots).
Native American and Polynesian origin stories, often describing migrations and land formations tied to geological events.

🧠 Why These Stories Endure

They encode cosmic explanations, ethical codes, and environmental memory.
Many are mythopoetic — meaning they carry both cultural and existential meaning.
Some (especially Indigenous stories) may have survived continuously for 10,000+ years, making them the oldest remembered narratives on Earth.

🏆 Summary of the Oldest Stories Still Remembered

Story / Tradition	Region	Estimated Age	Transmission	Notes
Aboriginal Dreamtime Myths	Australia	10,000+ years	Oral	Flood and landscape myths tied to real events.
Epic of Gilgamesh	Mesopotamia	c. 2100 BCE	Written & oral	Oldest written epic.
Descent of Inanna	Sumeria	c. 1900 BCE	Written & oral	Proto-resurrection myth.
Pyramid Texts	Egypt	c. 2400 BCE	Written	Early afterlife & creation myths.
Vedic Hymns (Nasadiya Sukta)	India	c. 1500 BCE	Oral & written	Still recited today.

👉 Summary:

Oldest written story: Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100 BCE)
Oldest still told story: Aboriginal Dreamtime flood myths (10,000+ years)
Oldest religious-philosophical hymn still recited: Nasadiya Sukta (Rig Veda, c. 1500 BCE)

Saturday, October 4, 2025

RE Slater - Tinker, Tailor, Beggar Man, Thief

Tinker, Tailor

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT-5

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor,
Rich man, Poor man, Beggar, Thief.

Mechanic, Artist, Pilot, Baker,
Scholar, Gardener, Dreamer, Chief.

What will I become, what dress shall I wear?
Whether cotton or silk, satin or rags?

How shall I travel? By carriage or plane?
By boat or by foot or work-a-day rail train?

Where shall I dwell? By city or lane?
On mountain or valley, cottage or plain?

Whom shall I marry? Be he kind or harsh?
Will I be content as a mother of three?

So many questions, so many roads,
Counting out futures by wishes and codes.

R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

By my request, here are four short, original compositions by ChatGPT-5: feminist, colonial, postcolonial, and postmodern, plus a tiny bit of framing to situate their casting. - RE Slater

Quick framing (why these rewrites matter)

The classic rhyme lists mostly male-coded roles and has variants that end with “Doctor, Lawyer, Merchant… Indian Chief,” reflecting colonial stereotypes embedded in children’s play. Rewrites let us flip those defaults. Wikipedia+2Mama Lisa's World+2

1) Feminist recast - “Maker, Midwife”

Tinker, tailor, solder, suture,
Reader, writer, coder, tutor,
Glass-ceiling breaker, carer, chief—
Not your trope, nor someone’s brief.

Silk or denim, boots or lace,
Every craft a truer place;
Count the cherries, name the star—
Every role is who you are.

- ChatGPT

2) Colonial critique - “Ledger & Flag”

A tinker taxes pots to shine,
A tailor trims a borrowed line;
Soldier, sailor—ports grown wide—
Rich man counts from others’ sides.
Poor man pays, beggar’s grief,
Thief is crowned as “Indian Chief.”

Cherry stones and copper suns,
Children chant what empire runs;
Choosing “It” with tagged decree—
Tag the world, then call it free.

- ChatGPT

3) Postcolonial reversal - “After the Counting-Out”

Fisher, farmer, healer, weaver,
River-reader, seed-believer,
Archivist of stolen ground,
Speaker where the lost are found;
Cartographer of mended coasts,
Host to once-unwelcome hosts.

Now count again: repair, redress,
Return, remember, re-possess;
Where “Chief” was mask for taking land,
Chief now means a guiding hand.

- ChatGPT

4) Postmodern remix - “/tɪŋ.kə/ /ˈteɪ.lə/ [glitch]”

tinker // tailor // soldier // sailor
[copy] [paste] [strike] [errata]
rich/poor // beg/buy // give/steal
[role := interface] [self := patch]
↓
tinker?—tailor?—both—neither—
version 12.3 of me
compiles with warnings:
identity not found
(press any key to continue)

- ChatGPT

Commentary

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT-5

Childhood can be both tender and philosophical, a quiet theater where child's-play meets the liminal weight of existential being. In still moments, children wonder if the moon truly follows them home; if tomorrow will mirror today; or if a friend’s affection endures in absence. Questions of fairness, kindness, and belonging rise like unbidden riddles: why do some have more and others less? Why does generosity return joy in one moment yet vanish into silence in another? To adults these musings seem small, but they are in fact the child’s first philosophy - an untaught inquiry into time, justice, love, and loss. In this secret scaffolding of thought, children begin shaping their sense of self and world, quietly searching for coherence in the shifting play of existence.

Some qualities of childhood:

Imagination as inquiry – Children often ask not only about what is but what might be. Their daydreams, games, and stories are proto-philosophical experiments in possibility, where fantasy is not escape but exploration.

Embodied wonder – Their questions are not just abstract but tied to the sensory immediacy of rain on skin, the vastness of night skies, the sudden cruelty of playground quarrels. These experiences root their philosophy in lived encounter.

Silence and secrecy – Much of this questioning remains unspoken. Childhood philosophy is often interior, carried as a private hum beneath daily play and learning.

Open-endedness – Unlike adult philosophy, which seeks closure or coherence, children’s questions are content to remain questions, fertile with wonder. That suspension is itself a philosophical posture - dwelling in possibility without demanding resolution.

A Process Observation

Childhood questions embody the very essence of process thinking: the world is never fixed, but always becoming. In imagination, children enact the processive truth that novelty is the lifeblood of reality - daydreams and play are not escapes but experiments in possibility. In their embodied wonder, every raindrop, quarrel, or night sky is a fresh occasion of experience, reminding us that philosophy is grounded in the immediacy of lived encounters. In their secrecy, children show how much of becoming is interior, carried in quiet depths before it emerges into action or word. And in their open-endedness, children mirror the process insight that coherence need not be closure: the value lies not in final answers but in the ongoing journey of relation, surprise, and unfolding meaning.

In this way, childhood is a teacher of the process paradigm - reminding us to be content in mystery, to find joy in the unclosed arc of wonder. For the world itself is not a finished book but a story still being written, and in the child’s silent questions we glimpse the truth: that becoming is the greater gift, and wonder its most faithful companion.

- R.E. Slater & ChatGPT-5

A Childhood Meditation
by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT-5

Childhood whispers moments of truth,
that big, scary worlds are never still -
always unfolding, always re-situated,
ever becoming better or worse.

Imagination is a child’s first theology:
where play is not escape -
but everyday experiments in possibility;
where every “let’s pretend” is a 'verse
written anew in mystery and speculation.

Childhood's wonder is the soul’s grammar:
from feeling rain upon the skin,
to experiencing misery and harm;
or staring up at the vastness of night sky -
each crescendoing moment a symphonic score.

Childhood's inner consciousness holds
secrecies playing continually within;
composing quiet, unanswered riddles,
unspoken thoughts or burning tears -
forming broken worlds unmet silent needs.

Still, a child hopes, refusing disbelief -
that truth is never final, never not closed;
perhaps another journey might lead,
might yet find, healing and love;
where goodness replaces emptiness,
in embodied hugs and deep care.

In a sense, we grow up process-wise:
content in mystery because we must;
learning to dwell in imperfect worlds,
of quiet sadness we dream to abandon;
where childhood fears, sadness and loss,
might someday find closure,
and perhaps, brighter beginnings.

R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

Margaret Murray & Chorus

The Children's Opera Group

Tinker, Tailor

Applebee Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs

Common Modern version:

Tinker, Tailor,

Soldier, Sailor,

Rich Man, Poor Man,

Beggar Man, Thief.

Common American version:

Rich Man, Poor Man,

Beggar Man, Thief,

Doctor, Lawyer (or "Merchant"),

Indian Chief.

Modern Elaborations:

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor,

Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief,

Old Man, Young Man, Lawyer, Jailer,

Captain, Pirate, Fisherman, Chief,

Plowman, Cooper, Farmer, Teacher,

Banker, Gunner, Gardener, Cook,

Burglar, Boxer, Baker, Preacher,

Writer, Politician, or Crook.

Wikipedia (select notations cited below)

The "tinker, tailor" rhyme is one part of a longer counting or divination game, played by young girls to foretell their futures. During the divination, the child will ask a question and then count out a series of actions or objects by reciting the rhyme. The rhyme is repeated until the last of the series of objects or actions is reached. The last recited term or word is that which will come true. Buttons on a dress, petals on a flower, bounces of a ball, number of jumps over a rope, etc., may be counted.

When shall I marry?

This year, next year, sometime, never.

What will my husband be? (or what I be?)

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich-man, poor-man, beggar-man, thief.

What will I be?

Lady, baby, gypsy, queen.

What shall I wear?

Silk, satin, cotton, rags (or silk, satin, velvet, lace) (or silk, satin, muslin, rags)

How shall I get it?

Given, borrowed, bought, stolen.

How shall I get to church?

Coach, carriage, wheelbarrow, cart. (or Coach, carriage, wheelbarrow, dustbin)

Where shall I live?

Big house, little house, pig-sty, barn.

History and Meaning
(nurseryrhymes.info/tinker-tailor/)

"Tinker, Tailor" is a traditional English nursery rhyme that functions primarily as a counting game and fortune-telling method. While the familiar rhyme structure likely solidified over time, earlier precedents involving lists of common professions or social roles exist from centuries past. A similar categorization of societal roles appears in William Caxton's "The Game and Playe of the Chesse," printed around 1475, which names the pawns as "Labourer, Smith, Clerk, Merchant, Physician, Taverner, Guard and Ribald." The first documented instance of the specific opening sequence—Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor—being grouped together occurs in William Congreve's play "Love for Love" from 1695, suggesting these core professions had entered common language by the late 17th century.

The rhyme serves a distinct dual function in traditional children's culture. Firstly, it works as a "counting-out" rhyme, a simple method for randomly selecting someone from a group, often to determine who will be "It" in games like tag. The process involves pointing sequentially at each participant while reciting the stressed syllables of the rhyme; the person indicated on the final syllable is chosen. This practice connects to a long history of using rhymes for selection, potentially stemming from older methods of divination by lots. Secondly, and perhaps more famously, "Tinker, Tailor" serves as a fortune-telling game, particularly for young girls seeking to divine aspects of their future. The most common purpose was to predict a future husband's profession, though it could also foretell one's own destiny.

The divination involves counting a series of items—cherry stones after eating, buttons on clothing, daisy petals, ball bounces, or rope skips—while reciting the list of professions. The profession named on the count corresponding to the final item becomes the prediction. Longer versions extend beyond occupations to include marriage timing ("This year, next year, sometime, never"), future attire ("Silk, satin, cotton, rags"), mode of transport to church, and other life details. This dual use—as both a game randomizer and fate determiner—highlights the fluid boundary between play and belief in folk practices, where simple counting formulas take on different significance depending on context and intent.

The list of professions has evolved over time with notable regional variations. The most common modern version in the UK runs: "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief." In the United States, a frequently encountered version goes: "Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief, Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief." Earlier collected versions show further variation; James Orchard Halliwell in the 1840s recorded a button-counting rhyme starting "My belief – a captain, a colonel, a cow-boy, a thief." A.A. Milne's 1927 collection included an expanded version for counting cherry stones, adding roles like cowboy, policeman, jailer, engine driver, and rocket man. This evolution reflects changing social structures and prominent cultural archetypes across centuries, from medieval roles to maritime and military figures, stark wealth disparities, professional classes, and distinctly American characters.

Beyond its practical uses, "Tinker, Tailor" offers a window into historical perceptions of social roles and hierarchies. The listed professions span society's spectrum, from itinerant craftsmen (Tinker) and essential tradesmen (Tailor) to figures of authority (Soldier, Sailor) and the extremes of economic status (Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man) and criminality (Thief). The fortune-telling focus on determining a future husband's profession underscores the historical emphasis on marriage as a primary determinant of a woman's social standing and economic security. The rhyme's cultural resonance extends into modern times, most famously in John le Carré's espionage novel "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," but also in works by Ellery Queen and Tom Clancy, and even as a Marvel Comics title, demonstrating how these simple verses continue to echo through contemporary creative expressions.

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Music for Children (Schulwerk)

Carl Orff, Gunild Keetman, Margaret Murray • Album