Word Dancing With Internet Dictionaries Poem by Terence George Craddock

saga of a colossus dictionary writer
back in the days when writing a dictionary
was a big deal a really big colossus

deal before dictionaries no universal
spelling a word had multiple spellings
sometimes people spelling any which

way no precise correct spelling like today
meanings could vary meaning drifting away
no spell check ease checking meanings like

today Dr Samuel Johnson did not like
that chaotic imprecise confusing way
took pen paper wrote a heavy dictionary

Dr Samuel Johnson's Dictionary Masterpiece
A Dictionary of the English Language
Johnson pronounced to be 'Vasta mole superbus'

'Proud in its great bulk' a marvelous achievement

Dr Johnson took nine years to create
an authoritative dictionary of the English
language a massive cost in time effort

but the cost to buy to poor prohibitive

a colossal work each copy
cost £4/10/- equivalent;
to an expensive £675 in 2005

a small fortune
so exorbitant an amount
that five editions

thirty years later only copies 6,000;

had been checkout sold
averaging 200 dictionaries
a year for thirty years

not a pocket dictionary
a heavy weight to carry
risk stolen not funny

today at swift finger touch
with spell check applied
spelling bothers not much


Terence George Craddock (Afterglows Echoes Of Starlight)
Copyright © Terence George Craddock