Unruly Riddles

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The Hall Writers’ Forum The Hall Writers’ Forum was launched online in 2013 with a view to fostering dialogue, collaboration, and creative writing. Its members include current and former students of St Edmund Hall, members of the Hall’s academic and non-academic staff, and associates from outside the college who have been nominated by Forum members.

First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Chough Publications St Edmund Hall Oxford OX1 4AR This collection © 2020 Chough Publications Copyright for the individual contributions remains with the authors except where otherwise indicated

Introduction The riddles which appear in this book are directly the result of keeping brain cells occupied during the long period of enforced isolation during the coronavirus pandemic.

They were written by members of a private Facebook Group called Riddle Me Reeeeee! which came into being after Lucy Newlyn had spent a month posting verse riddles for her friends, and discovered that the activity generated communal fun. Most members of the group are also members (or associate members) of the Hall Writers’ Forum; a small number are friends made on Facebook. The community is scattered across the globe, and includes riddlers from India and the USA. The title of our book, and the rules for riddling, were decided collectively.

Every day at noon, members of the Riddle Me Reeeeee! Facebook group took it in turn to post a verse riddle which the others had to guess (a weekend riddle was introduced later, giving solvers twenty-four hours to come up with an answer). The riddle writer kept quiet for the first fifteen minutes and then offered hints and clues until eventually the riddle was solved. An explanation was later posted to enable everyone to enjoy that satisfying Aha! moment.

The riddles we have collected here are ranked in increasing order of difficulty: Surreptitiously Simple, Craftily Complicated, Brain Baffling, Devilishly Devious and Hair-raisingly Horrendous. The answer to and explanation of each riddle are given at the end of the book - cheat if you dare!

Everyone knows what a riddle is - or do they? Even the Mad Hatter in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was at a loss: “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”

“I give it up,” Alice replied: “what’s the answer?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” said the Hatter.

Thoughts on the riddle writer’s art are expressed by different contributors at the start of each section. We hope very much that you will enjoy scratching your head in teasing out these riddles.

Darrell Barnes Lucy Newlyn Summer 2020

Categories of Riddles Surreptitiously Simple Craftily Complicated Brain Baffling Devilishly Devious Hair-raisingly Horrendous Click on a title to take you to the page on which the section begins.

Contributors

Navigation Notes At the foot of each riddle is a button to take you to the Answer.

Answer

which you can click

On the Answer page, there are three buttons:

This Riddle

Click this button to take you to the riddle itself.

Next Riddle

Click this button to take you to the next riddle.

Riddle Categories

Click this button to go to the Riddle Categories.

Surreptitiously Simple These should engage some head-scratching but shouldn’t drive you up the wall.

The greatest riddle is the world, it has no answer, has no clues, with reams of meanings tightly furled.

So many lives like leaves lie curled, their stories blaze a thousand hues, the greatest riddle is the world.

Many have given up and twirled a moustache, said they’ve seen ruse, with reams of meanings tightly furled, whipped storms of words, a vortex whirled, to make the text mean what they choose: the greatest riddle is the world.

No factions here, no insults hurled, we script a game we cannot lose with reams of meanings tightly furled.

Our texts are toys, though finely pearled, we riddle simply to amuse; the greatest riddle is the world, with reams of meanings tightly furled.

Thomas McLucas

1

Those nearby these stony lions’ roar relish witnessing this yearly sight and snap it on their phones (whatever for?)

For a certain time this tree’s alight, a present from our wartime allies who love this country’s gallant sacrifice given for their freedom. Boys in blue armed their planes and took their chance at dice: rarely was such selfless service made.

Sailors too are well remembered here: quietly aloft, a slender shade uplifts our mid-October hearts each year.

Armed men pass nearby at solemn pace remembering the dead. I make a face enquiring if you’ll guess this well-known place.

When you do, please also prove how quite content you are you’ve got your answer right.

2 points to the winner (if you’re bright).

Darrell Barnes Answer

2 Small though I may be, bald, smooth, young with a beret, I will grow mighty.

Matthew Carter Answer

3 The spread was beautiful, but no one dined, once plucked the flowers became immune to death, the whole machinery had been designed, a time trap sealed against the slightest breath.

The bees and butterflies were caught in amber, bluebottles poised on endless tenterhooks with never quite ripe fruit on which to clamber beside the undrunk glass and unread books.

Where had the guests gone, who had fled the room, leaving this mess, a signature of sorts, to gather dust and introspect the gloom, still fresh beneath the centuries of thoughts?

A weird collector, lifelong hobbyist, who skimmed each art and science for the gist.

Thomas McLucas Answer

4 I seem to lose each battle and retreat, unlike de Gaulle.

I’ve no sticking power, but wage a never-ending war.

Deceitful and murderous, unto myself I’m a kind of law.

You’ve shown your appreciation with offerings galore, but sending back your things is something of a chore.

I’m regularly noisy, sometimes a kind of snore, sometimes with inspiration, I might venture to a roar.

I’ve bashed myself all over the place, but never get sore.

Stare and stare at me, somehow you’re never bored.

Like these lines, my place of unrest also ends in ore.

This quiz will not vex you, much more phew than awe.

“Thank God!” you’ll cry, as I, pondering what all this is for, and riddled as you, like a fool, I’ll be back for more.

Rob Miles Answer

5 I follow you around the place all day.

You cannot shake me off. I will not go away.

Try breaking me in two, yet I will stay.

A part of me belongs to part of you: I burrow in an orifice, or maybe two.

I sometimes make you happy, sometimes blue.

The other part of me might cause disgust, or at the very least make you nonplussed.

Do what you will, I’ll plague you still. I must.

I’m here until you find another track you cannot switch me off, I’ll just come back.

I’m telling you there’s something that you lack.

Lucy Newlyn Answer

6 A key that opens nothing, a string that isn’t tied, a lid you needn’t open to get at what’s inside.

Thomas McClucas Answer

Craftily Complicated These riddles will prove a bit more challenging.

Show me that around which all things both large and small turn, pivot and fall.

Matthew Carter

7

I feed on babies’ cries and I like to enfold the old.

Only you can move me.

You make my ribs sigh.

Cheryl Claxton Answer

8 I live on the edges, in the most neglected places: scorned by some, by others roughly treated, but by children rarely reviled.

Roaming in graveyards, dark and unruly, rambling through ruins loosely piled, I can be bitter, left to my own devices but I luxuriate in running wild.

If I’m off-colour, don’t kid yourself you can change me.

If I play hard to get, don’t bother to pursue me.

I might hurt you if you try to use me.

But oh, I can be sweetness itself if the time is right and you treat me nice and mild.

Lucy Newlyn Answer

9 I’m in my forties I wear an old patterned jumper I have good German teeth I like driving my big vintage car I do a bit of fishing I’m spending Monday in France I’d like to make love with you in my car (in a car park) That would feel like a victory I have changed a bit and I do feel a little redundant but I’m still well-loved.

John Lanyon Answer

10 It was there at the heart of my grandparents’ house, it hung like a scent in the air.

It sounded like a tune in every darkened room, followed us blindfold up the stairs.

I have it now in my own home, battered and worn by the years.

Reflected in my loved ones’ faces, in others’ too - in random places; bringing smiles, reducing fears.

Whether we feel on top of the world or downcast - brought low by fate, it still plays a string of melodies to cheer us, help us, keep us from the unbalanced ways of hate.

Vivienne Tregenza Answer

11 1 2

The Sun in Cairo.

50.4% (2017).

Just add boiling water.

Matthew Carter Answer

12 Part 1 This country’s landlocked, you should know.

Coloured rivers through it flow which give the state its former name (a verse device sounds just the same).

It shouldn’t be too hard to guess the name you seek, I must confess.

Part 2 Now the fun starts! Find out why, in this country parched and dry, a former emblem raised alarms that men might choose to wave their arms (as done today with chill effect in lands where law earns no respect).

This emblem has devoted fans so tell me, please: who drew the plans?

Darrell Barnes Answer

13

They are wild, and cannot be tamed.

They are tiny and strong.

All over the land they spring up, and they’re famed in song.

Though their eyes are shut at night they perk up by day.

You can’t keep the blighters down, and they won’t go away.

You can chain them all you like.

You can string them along.

They know they’re as good as the rest: they can do no wrong.

Why slight them? Their eyes are bright.

They’re intrepid and free.

You won’t find any so bold though you sail the sea.

When the grass grows over your head they’ll open their eyes.

When your ship goes down like lead in their thousands they’ll rise.

Lucy Newlyn Answer

14

Seen full on it looks askew, but seen askew the picture’s true.

Darrell Barnes Answer

15

Already it’s ten years old.

I wish it were dying, or dead.

It has always been mean and cold, whatever the crooks have said.

It was born of selfishness and the venal greed of a few.

The bastards couldn’t care less what it does to me and you.

If only it hadn’t existed, the poor might have thrived.

If only it hadn’t persisted, the common good had survived.

Its damage is with us still and has laid the country low.

It has made a multitude ill, and many a person your foe.

What is it, you may well ask, which has such persistent power?

This riddle’s an easy task: it will take you less than an hour.

Lucy Newlyn Answer

16 Born in London’s Mayfair, this little tomboy tread the stud farms of Kentucky in her youth earning credentials and poise before returning to her roots to make her, now, world famous name.

She became more of a philanthropist in later life, and has weathered much trouble through the years, thus, with never a penny in her purse she is happy nonetheless, enjoying carefree sprees among flowers, weeds, thistle and rose in the country, or celebrating the early flowers of April when they arise.

Catherine McCabe Answer

17 Lecherous thoughts are playing on my mind, although I’m draped in Della Robbia blue.

I’m in a maze and darkly half entwined; seeing double? Am I one - or two?

You might look at me as I sidle past though you should take much more care from behind.

Please note, my aim is unsurpassed and I take pride in my family, you’ll find.

Two of me are scaly, one beneath the sea, who’d have thought a tree might try to set you free?

At last I can bear it: I’ve come of Age but, dear Riddlers, let’s agree to turn the page.

Cheryl Claxton Answer

18

In not quite A major, in apple and lime this lot, I wager, herald our time.

Darrell Barnes Answer

19 A ginger-haired girl and she sows to the four winds on red and white dusk she comes from Persia but she wears a Phrygian cap Eurasian offspring her father, Eugene master of visual arts lies now on a cross her mother, Gaia the empress of all things wild still keeps her grounded fiercer than a cat ubiquitous, multiform with her fangs so soft not ecclesiast she dares to lead the people crowned by Liberty alongside Gavroche she falls on the battlefield reborn the next day she remains with us and carries our desires to unknown places.

Sébastien Revon Answer

20 A green neighbourhood.

If I had one of these I’d use it all the time, show my mettle about town.

At Sherlocks convenience.

All in a pickle over a collar.

Humourless afternoon tea and cake.

Power station, colourfully lit.

Party time, a celebration.

Thirst quenching for flushed, bowler hatted gents.

I may repeat myself but I get around.

Cool, urban, up to date.

Bullseye.

Helene Guojah Answer

21 Eight Emblems of Julius Sweet syrup Inside Mouldering pelt and Bone Adit Mouthful of tombstones, barrel of grass, outrun a horse.

I lie down.

Orange globes warn my skin.

Catwalk pylon, snake tongue, eyes like Loren.

Soon all of me left here will be an umbrella stand with toes, and a beer.

So quick I can’t miss your eyes in a second sealed with my kiss.

Slope back loper, white bone shit, pestilent titter.

Green knight on a shoot, a lance in my throat.

Chris Hardy Answer

22 I keep my house in ship-shape style.

Twelve of my faces reflect back at you.

Apparently, I hail from France, and Trump’s U.S. - who knew?

Stick with us because we say what we see.

We’re in this together - but maybe watch your back.

Our word is our bond for all eternity although we might prove fatal if under attack.

We might leave a decision to you, but that we can make or mar is true.

Cheryl Claxton Answer

23 The riddle about a dead king A pattern with a friend A hindrance for a sailor A set-back for an assistant A precaution with a partner A deferral for South American tea The king is dead (until the next time) If you don’t say it, I will.

John Lanyon Answer

24 This music will provide a treat: the well-known final of a suite.

Keep your distance! Stand away, lest a spark might go astray in this place of heat and glare, while the craftsman hums this air and its variations five: heavy metal comes alive.

This music man here dodged the rain (that’s fictional, I should explain).

Might Wagner visit for some shoes?

I think that’s quite sufficient clues.

“What piece is this?” I fondly ask; to answer that is now your task.

Darrell Barnes

Answer

25 Part A I turn and I twist, get the angle just so, with a flick of my wrist I run this chateau.

Not shaken, but stirred, or it’ll crack under pressure, watch the sediment transferred as it has a refresher.

My origin’s specific, or else I just sparkle, my product soporific and my job patriarchal.

An old-fashioned skill, arcane and so classy, in the dark and the chill I make sure that they’re gassy.

Part B Well done - you got it: that little-known name of a champagned vintner in the wine making game.

But this is a game!

There’s always part B: now give me the name of a Bat enemy.

Take his real name, and play it a bit: who wrote this novel (and a more famous hit)?

Matthew Carter Answer

Brain Baffling These riddles will give you pause for thought.

I wrote a long and complex poem that was in itself an excellent riddle on what a riddle could be. So neat I thought: a meta-mise-en-riddle that’ll show ’em. But sixteen stanzas in and I stopped all my fiddling calmly pressing Delete, asking myself if the greatest of all our riddles isn’t how we have yet to meet.

Rob Miles

26

I bring my charge in fresh each year and thin the herd by Spring.

Those who need me most do visit, but just to say they’ve been.

They fill me up with burdens, then take the burdens back and cast an eye within my walls to look for what they lack.

I’m filled with treasures all might take, but always must replace machines within my moving guts and wheels to fill my space.

For my work brings the breathless to soon be seeing double.

You’ll be weaker once you’ve been with me, but stronger for your trouble.

Alexander Bridge Answer

27

They will often arrive in pairs, moving hand in tender hand.

But this can draw critical stares from mockers throughout the land with their supercilious airs who dismiss them as soppy and bland.

They used to be more than okay but they’ve gone out of fashion.

If you find you need them today you must stick to the ration lest something should go astray for this brainwashed nation.

If you listen all night to songs they are sure to get into your blood.

For some they are grievous wrongs to be firmly nipped in the bud.

But the mind still hungers and longs as it always has - and should.

They will soothe an aching heart.

They will draw a full circle tight.

With seductive musical art they are beautiful, just, and right.

Let them be, to play their part; let them not take regretful flight.

Lucy Newlyn Answer

28

A man of aplomb and instinct; some say he’s dashing.

By day he can be found in the situation room, surrounded by wolves a-gnashing.

He trained with the CIA and these days he knows a thing or two about how to find fascists in hiding.

Catherine McCabe Answer

29

I see a Dutch fan in a pram who drums his heels and cries; I glimpse a piebald gelding as it vanishes around a bend; I watch a man in fright wig and with painted smile throw custard pies; I hear the cracked and quavering call that warns the world is at an end.

Peter J King Answer

30

Safe as houses on summer days they are silent witnesses, guarding your secrets like loyal friends.

You trust their stillness, depend on their restoration.

In autumn, they begin whispering.

Restless all day, you cannot stop them from spreading rumours.

How changeable they become, turning from you without warning.

By winter you have lost faith in them.

Try as you might, you cannot predict their moods. Harsh voices trouble you.

At night you lie awake, sensing that they too are tossing and turning.

As for spring, who knows which way the wind blows? Here they are again.

You fear they’re plotting something by their hints, eager solicitations, confidences.

You brace yourself, hoping for a quiet life.

Lucy Newlyn Answer

31 A pile of rubble beside a lake in cannon’s shadow: it was a face famous in story poem and song; if you’ve lived in New England, this won’t take long.

Bruce Graver Answer

32 There are two answers to this riddle; you must supply both, but having guessed one, the other will be on the tip of your tongue.

Two simple words, pronounced the same, are subjects of this guessing game.

The first of them extolled the Lord, the second seasoned tasteless board.

The first engaged much pious labour, the second helped to furnish savour.

But both these words, now rarely used, sound like one who’s been accused of violence ’gainst the female sex.

Enough! To work! So clear the decks!

Darrell Barnes Answer

33 Come closer We all seek connection Let’s face it There’s not much room in here not for the likes of you and me (I’m strictly business) Even if you were my type However much I twist and turn I’ll only ever be… a small child hugging their knees.

John Lanyon Answer

34

If it comes with tears, they will flow for wrongs that are done.

If it comes with the falling snow it will soon be gone.

It can neither walk nor run.

If it comes in the dead of night it will have no face.

If it comes when the sun is bright it will leave no trace.

It has neither time nor place.

Its seeds are already sown, we cannot tell how.

Its pattern is still unknown, but is with us now.

It can break no vow.

Lucy Newlyn Answer

35

I am from Africa, my needs are few.

My children abundant.

I was most at home in the 1970s.

I do not have eight legs (though you might think I do).

And now I will hang up.

John Lanyon Answer

36

You so puzzled me at first, your contradictory twists & turns, your slippery bewitchery, yet with the strength of thousands you just tow the line, and throughout history, from fish’ries through to milit’ry, you’ve been relied upon.

Happ’ly even I was able soon to learn your twisted mystery.

Kate Newlyn Answer

37

My head is dishevelled, and cannot be called a crown: I am too rough to be regal.

My body crawls with lives, and time has wrinkled my skin. I open my arms to all comers. My scars are no secret, telling my story.

I am wounded and mended. My veins reach below me into the dark, tapping an ancient well. I draw on its sorrow - lifting old melodies, making them fluid and new, so their rhythm sinks in. I move all the time, sprinkling the air with sounds, so the air catches them.

I rock in my shadow and the ground holds my pattern. I am a column of breath. Does that answer my question?

Lucy Newlyn Answer

38

An affectionate cockney mother, an early riser, a tonal centre.

Some have no truck with this sort of thing.

John Lanyon Answer

39

Imagine a scene on a summer’s day… cows in the field, what more should I say?

There will be trees, and wild creatures gliding along; the flowing wings of this village song.

As this one drives along green lanes the other resides in the hollows of planes.

The sound of the first is a swish and a click.

The noise of the second is a clicking trick.

While one sends our small worlds flying, another’s flight path is through a clearing.

When dusk comes, one to rest is laid; another takes off at close of day.

Vivienne Tregenza Answer

40 My first: field-fenced, four-bellied, flatulent, and fearsome.

My second: porcelain-pooled, passed over, prim-privied, and pungent.

My whole: contest-cast (when desiccate); delivered dry in academic discourse.

Peter J King Answer

41

The first is where you stand; it is sometimes confused with land but rarely with gravel or sand.

The second is rarely seen.

It’s around, beyond, between; who can tell where it has been?

The third can lick through your house much faster than cat or mouse and can frazzle an itchy louse.

The fourth is more precious than all.

You can sometimes hear it call and it runs before it can fall.

Together these four make a team much stronger than you could dream.

You can easily guess my theme…

Lucy Newlyn Answer

42 Omnipotent, I crush sheaves of what-might-have-beens.

I crumple obsequies into dust.

I am Juggernaut.

You, my mediator, my oracle, bound to servitude at birth, clasp your weak weapons of bone, sinew, stained skin around votive offerings.

I disdain them.

Nothing is good enough for me, Melpomene’s nemesis.

I slither under your smudgy fingertips between the tablet and the stylus.

I gather the discarded consecration, the abortive oblates, into my dusty maw.

Your failures are my hecatombs.

Eleanor Bradley Answer

43 For many I have cast off my religious connotations but I live on as a dessert on naughty seaside postcards.

In Latin I am a woman as old-fashioned as Gladys or Daphne and in the world I pass as surely as a smouldering cloth.

At the start of day I am more likely To be a flower than a prayer.

You can eat me as sweet potato – bindweed is my family.

That of the father lit up the castle of the mother for one nostalgic child in long Provencal summers.

In poetry my heyday has gone but I can find my way back in.

My name summons up for you the beauty of every multicoloured thing.

Adele Ward Answer

44 Up a carya tree, make a timely ascent, doubly encircling - perhaps a Maid of Kent?

The Virgin births a sacrificial child and we stand watching pestilence run wild.

A fragile infant gently held aloft; let’s hope the landing is oh-so-soft.

To feed the babe, kneading needs to be swift, an errant fowl may - elsewhere - bear a gift.

Laundry flutters; greedy rulers sit far apart you know the answer: it’s been there from the start: since bells have chimed and stars have shone and heads have rolled and time moved on.

Cheryl Claxton Answer

45

Oh it’s new all right - it will never be old.

It is fresh, experimental, exciting, bold.

It shows while it tells; it can also be told.

It changes through time, it can change your mind.

It can bind your thoughts together, sometimes unbind.

It can stir you into action, it can make you kind.

Some hold it cheap: for these it’s just a thrill.

Others discard it when they’ve had their fill.

Millions have loved it, millions love it still.

Suddenly, three hundred years ago, it rose.

Where will it go next? Nobody knows…

Onward, developing, changing, it goes.

Lucy Newlyn Answer

46 A verse to stimulate your guesses.

One is all this world possesses; two for the warrior next in line, and then the king with seventy-nine!

Sons their fathers beat, ’tis true: his dad’s behind with sixty-two.

The king’s grandfather next we see with three increased by power three; and, governing the watery scene, this last one only has fourteen.

Attractively in Greek they wander.

Can you find their names, I wonder?

A plaque in the Riddle Me Reeeeee! Hall of Fame if you give some hangers-on a name.

Darrell Barnes Answer

47 A carpenter’s tool; a ridiculous fool; Tom’s best friend; a ball cap’s end; Maya has left; I feel so bereft; celestial steam; we’re all good with cream.

Bruce Graver Answer

48 Party goer, oh so divine, find me contained in every line.

No longer here but so wise and wealthy.

The longest of lives, fate had dealt me.

Spring time flower of every hue to have me here is quite a coup woodwind piper that’s my station.

Has this opus sealed my reputation?

Helene Guojah Answer

49 Torn from where they lay, beneath the southern skies, their love lives on forever in our eyes.

Immovable yet moving, both alive yet dead, untouchable yet touching us instead.

Kate Newlyn Answer

Devilishly Devious This is now serious stuff!

The riddle is no solitary art, pursued in isolation when you’re crazed by wild meanderings of head and heart.

It is no troubled pleasure when you’re fazed, no idle way of filling up the hours, No therapeutic means to feel less dazed.

What purpose in a riddle? Yours is ours: we puzzle out the words, and all together enjoy a trick that never dulls, or sours.

We find the Aha! moment; and whatever other joys you’ve planted on the way will go on pleasing readers still, forever.

Do not be wary. Say what you must say.

Revel in language. Make sweet music. Play.

Lucy Newlyn

50

Chuck the kernels, peck and scrabble, claw the floor and squawk and gabble!

A rooster sits upon the coop, sizing up where he should swoop.

With lamp and mirror and altered eye, among this farmyard fun I’ll lie.

Matthew Carter Answer

51 I make amends as swiftly as a fist and take as many shapes as minds exist.

I make amends and wear a sacred veil, though sometimes I spill blood to right a scale.

One sees me form as swiftly as I vanish; some say I’m female, though I sit quite mannish, a kingly queen, a god, my heart a fist, I hold time’s mirror to each optimist and take, as men confute each other’s wits, too many sides (so often opposites).

In truth, I have no view; these eyes of mine take coins! I shift my shapes as minds design, and after all those clues (unruly list) you might well question whether I exist.

Thomas McLucas Answer

52 The 1st brings probably the saddest dog, stank, stuffed and floating in the sea.

Two for one fair lion-queen the 1st man’s son, who sets her free.

The next, three, just a sweet pink rose for noise with dirt on and a snotty nose.

At five, tea’s served in Georgian style, while six jump off for that Kings Cup smile.

Oh never let the tale be told, this monochrome minstrel’s monstrous bold.

Gill Newlyn Answer

53 What are all of these? What is each one?

1. Why would the moggy decide to go off with something gone suddenly soft?

2. A cockroach across the channel- no joke but a dark canine here for some poor folk.

3. and it’s not amphibians in their struggle but felines making them gargle.

4. There would be quite a mess left from tumbling quadrupeds.

5. Potentially offensive kitchen chatter: ‘All receptacles matter!’

6. Fattening, laborious and possibly dense: the opposite of this sense.

7. In Spain they’ll want to tease your hair though one limb here, since we’re not there.

8. In Germany, it’s other digits for success while we tend to press or wrap the index.

9. In Japan, even a thing perfect as me can land on its ego, plunging from a tree.

10. If he’s your buoyant avuncular type it might just be that you’ve got this right.

Rob Miles

Answer

54 Part 1 O sing me a song in the subjunctive mood, of the waiting expectation of a not-hatched brood, of the endless endings yet to begin, of the dreams and desires we nurture deep within.

When pen meets paper, but ink is not yet spilt, when architects draw blueprints of buildings not yet built. when the metal’s not yet forged, but nestles in the ore, when a teacher views a pupil and perceives they can do more.

Part 2 Seize on that potential, change my class and make me longer, add a grassy meadow - that should get you on a roll.

Now break this word’s marriage, so it’s no longer one whole.

I take on this title, and in the hearth-glow make him stronger.

I am vital and domestic, a mused at stream, yet deferential, I journal the dark homestead of Reynard’s family.

I weave a world of comfort full of storied-gifts of charity, for my pen, though private-kept, dances with the same potential.

Matthew Carter Answer

55

Without me your verse is nothing, a senseless string of words.

Without me your thoughts are wordless as the songs of birds.

Always you can turn to me when you have lost your way.

Always you can learn from me I am your help, your stay.

I am the substance on which you feed, as only you can tell.

I can give you what you sorely need, but you must use me well.

I support you, though I’m thin enough to be mountain air.

Look around you, among all your stuff.

I am already there.

Lucy Newlyn Answer

56

Baleful words, which might well rhyme with any, he cannot understand; and meanwhile many neighbours neither read nor see. His plans, which he had hoped might rival any man’s, have now turned into dust. The outcome’s grim, his chances of survival very slim; for him, I fear, the future is no more.

But never mind: since 1964 he is admired, acclaimed by one and all, and thousands see his back against the wall.

24’s the number that you seek.

Now hurry up! I can’t stay here all week!

Darrell Barnes Answer

57

I dance alone, twitching in the air, although I can also hang, forlorn.

I’m perhaps more at home on the ground, but fashionistas might shoot a stare.

Seamus Heaney knew me (second-hand), Ali, Lewis, Tyson had me tamed.

Boxers used, feared and felt my power; the poet saw me help divide the land.

Cheryl Claxton Answer

58

Part 1 When you don’t have me, you have me.

And once you have grasped me, I’m no longer there.

Before you find the answer, I exist in all your minds, and when you find the answer, I shall simply become a word.

Part 2

The joy of my existence lies in the journey.

Explore me, bathe in me, delve into my potential.

For some I am fearsome, to form and then dismiss, for others I am beautiful, a great creative kiss.

Part 3 Explorers venture into it.

Matthew Carter Answer

59

I’d play here all day if I had my way near the stepping-stones, in the clearest of rock-pools, where water slaps and slips; where minnows dart, and a baby trout flop-flips.

I’m not a fisherman catching fish with my long line’s soft whirr and swish; I’m a votary listening to the burble of water in the shallows, its soft gurgle, the babble of secrets, their quiet hiss.

Listen, as I slosh and splash around, to the lap-lap-lapping of a river-sound: the purest expression of my purest wish.

Lucy Newlyn Answer

60

Congratulations, Ma’am! One’s reached the peak!

One must have started climbing very young.

To mark this rite of passage, will One speak in what’s undoubtedly a foreign tongue?

One says One never says it though it’s said?

I understand. It must be such a chore to speak Oneself when Bill is so well read.

Go to it, subjects! What are riddles for?

Darrell Barnes Answer

61 Slender and elegant, she sits, under dappled shade of trees, their leaves silvery in the sunlight, the odd white cloud scudding across the summer sky.

Away from the rest of the group, at the edge of the stream she removes her soft suede shoes and cools her toes in the stream while sipping tea from a dainty porcelain cup. She waves occasionally to the others on the grass, listening to their sound.

Helene Guojah Answer

62 Frank Columbo’s a good one, Peter Falk is too, no doubt, Michael Palin is up there, Attenborough’s up for a shout, David Dimbleby’s always been there: what could this all possibly mean?

Let me list a few others, for riddling sisters and brothers now in limerick form to be seen…

So head off and head up and go high, till you’re almost as far as the Skye.

Or you could spend 40 grand to be given a hand then prepare for the sound of that cry.

Perhaps you would care to gyrate?

Shake this clue, shake the word susurrate, for this last one, you’ll muse which the 1st? Can you choose?

The unsolvable age-old debate.

Gill Newlyn Answer

63 I may be a weakness but homophones can be deceptive.

I might offer interrogatives when they turn to the collective.

I hear I bloom in places like Mexico but I’m less pretty than effective.

I felt oddly cleansed that time She showed him her invective.

I lack light in France if you find me dim, not just défectueux.

I should be used confidently to be instructive or receptive.

I can be above or below, but of both I can’t be reflective.

I won’t be the one snipped to bits when they’re getting really selective.

I know you’d be lost without me though I’m not necessarily directive.

Rob Miles Answer

64 Whoosh (INNSA) round and round we go, round and round some more, so fast now, it is dangerous.

Sarah Killjoy, the Spoiler of Good Times gets on and we stop (TWOE).

By what law is Sarah allowed to make us stop (AC)?

Catherine McCabe Answer

65 My first sounds subjunctive, my second mock-regal; American gardeners regard me as evil.

To lighten your darkness, as some people say, I come forth from shadows, or quick turn away.

My name’s Narragansett, or so says the OED. You know it best from punishing poetry.

Bruce Graver Answer

66 Part 1 (Part 2 was posted as soon as Part 1 had been correctly answered).

England (not the other lot) is where we’ll start. Now: have you got your visas and your travel docs?

You have? Oh good! Release the chocks!

First stop Spain (bowled out from Devon please take note, Sébastien Revon); on to Mali (not much rain); Burkina Faso (what - again?); Ghana (makes your bed-time cocoa); another place that’s far to go to; Algeria (produces oil); and lastly France (an ally loyal).

Algiers airport radio messaged us not long ago: “Ground Control to Major Tom tell us where you’re coming from.”

Part 2 - now that you know the names of these eight countries (Algeria, Burkina Faso, England, France, Ghana, Mali, Spain and Togo), where should I live?

I love to travel east and west (and north and south), but home is best.

So tell me in which London borough I should reside. To work! Be thorough!

I ought to add this short PS: I’ll not accept a random guess (such woolly thinking’s not allowed): you must explain yourself. Be proud!)

That’s food for thought for you to munch.

Now hurry up! I want my lunch!

Darrell Barnes Answer

67 Before we tumble nine ways head over heels from the ark of our preconceived ideas, give us our daily pot of gold and joy of joys something to spread it on.

Vivienne Tregenza Answer

68 If I’d rather get down than get humble, perhaps I can be forced to stumble.

The misfortune does not lie with me but with my choice of company.

A copper kettle barely sings, but men are distracted by shiny things.

I lie on the surface, pure as snow, and my truth is hidden deep below.

A fool and his money are easily parted.

Look! I’m right back where I started.

We’re more than one, that’s easy to see but who am I and who are we?

Eloise Stonborough Answer

69 Her Siren voice is hollow.

Her harpy claws will rend you. She’ll sink your limping ship.

Shy, spooks easily, flushes from nest, she bates from my trembling glove.

She rouses her ragged feathers in a fragile display. The vanes are snapped and split.

Others have her quiescent. Austringers.

Hawk tamers. She is sleek and plump. They grip her jesses. She grips the gauntlet, cleaving, cloven.

Eleanor Bradley Answer

70 Vauxhall Tavern’s gossip that never runs dry.

Matthew Carter Answer

71 Given freely, though we never asked, like the ultimate in loving, a sprinkling of diamonds in the dark, surely this is something more than nothing.

Kate Newlyn Answer

72 What a sweet gig for a groovy old dude, a half-baked dope long stoned out of his mind.

Spending all day sunbathing in the nude so you don’t get behind on your behind.

Eloise Stonborough Answer

73 This one turned both virginal and satanic, but not everyone was sold, don’t panic…

She looked very alive almost under the lid, but for a bit more Don, what wouldn’t she give?

Across the Mersey this certainly didn’t appear to be, plus a cat and a she (some said was a he).

Split by a bolt, two peepers not quite the same.

Far out perhaps, but not far as came this one, nothing round at all, and quite a lot of light so, given the absent name, can that be right?

Last one is fingers in what you can’t normally see.

What year all of these? Can you name them individually?

Rob Miles Answer

74 Downcast I rose to global fame giving the meaning of my name.

I was a god, perhaps still am, can bless a life as well as damn and still find value in the flame.

I’ve been a spirit, prince, some claim a miser, caveman (but now tame), a wolf upbraided by a lamb, downcast I rose to be figurehead for blame ambassador of England (shame!) but still you bear my monogram of sorts. We tend each other pram to grave, most love me all the same: downcast I rose.

Thomas McLucas Answer

75 Rising like mermaids from the sea, my element is breath, or air.

Like wind I journey, roaming free and you can find me everywhere.

My element is breath, or air.

I fly around on lightest wings, and you can find me everywhere.

I am a mood your music brings.

I fly around on lightest wings, I move about in place and time.

I am a mood your music brings you tremble, hearing me in rhyme.

I move about in place and time, you cannot trap me in your cage.

You tremble, hearing me in rhyme; I stretch my wings although you age.

You cannot trap me in your cage I travel on from breath to breath.

I stretch my wings although you age; I find eternity in death.

I travel on, from breath to breath rising like mermaids from the sea.

I find eternity in death like wind I journey, roaming free.

Lucy Newlyn Answer

76 My first is an article though not of faith; my second you hold in your hand; my third is what you dress up to, wraith; my whole a feature of the land.

If still you can’t trace me then go to Amherst and read there a poem on thought.

The Pierian Spring there will quench your thirst so simply this riddle is wrought.

Amita Paul Answer

77 So this one’s a chore or our pleasure, success based on floor or the weather.

It expands and contracts any puffing is an act sad and glad at the ends of our tethers.

Rob Miles Answer

78 When through the darkling skies the sun’s rebirth reminds our hero of his bounteous girth, he laughs out loud! For all his joy is worth sweet merrymaking: ever since his birth!

He will come first, with women, wine and worse, for soda-sermons follow where there’s dearth of him. Though better fun, ’tis a lower berth he takes than Blake, when happy. How perverse!

Natasha Walker Answer

Hair-raisingly Horrendous If these riddles don’t find you climbing the wall, then you are obviously made of stronger stuff!

It really all depends on what you mean.

Other people try to understand the words upon the page that they have seen but little can divine what you have planned.

It matters greatly where you place a word, how you use conjunctions (“but” or “and”), and then you watch them, seeing how they’ve erred, how deliciously you’ve led them all astray; their wilder guesses, often just absurd, combine in sum to make your happy day.

Like an angler, playing with his catch, you watch those guessing, teasing them in play.

But then: alarm! There’s suddenly a batch of comments and suggestions: someone’s won!

Another soul has beat you in your match!

The riddle now is over, battle done.

Congratulate yourself: it was such fun!

Darrell Barnes

79 You’re like Bagpipe, Scotland and Windhover; if we’re there then my friends we’re in Clover.

First with flowers and dollies you’re rife and in what’s called by some staff of life.

Then you’re that which does some powers gall.

When in doubt Robert Frost we recall.

It’s amazing when we cannot see the whole thing that’s plain as can be.

I can see some of us have reached there.

Let the rest nothing daunt, nothing scare Amita Paul Answer

80 Fear gifts from Greeks, for they may be two-faced and double-edged, like me.

On one side I am keen and quick; but on the other, blunt and thick.

Some polish me for special use; to others, I’m ubiquitous.

I do what I am, I say what I do.

One foreign name contains a clue.

I am embodied in that name.

Join the two sides, I am the same.

What name is that, you may well ask?

Tolkien of course. Now, to your task…

Lucy Newlyn Answer

81 I am the way that all things surely go; a sideways move, for most, on Jacob’s ladder.

When I grip too hard to what I know I get cantankerous with age, or madder, and cannot do the only thing that matters: soften my edges and make space to grow before my brittle edifice just shatters under the weight of always saying no.

If only I could be more starry-eyed than lonely: though my head is in the sky, my heart is in the dark places that hide the line between truth and the mimic’s lie.

I wish I were the kind of beast that could bark like a dog or, maybe, like a god.

Eloise Stonborough Answer

82 Hello again, stars!

Darrell Barnes Answer

83 From the time of ancient Rome, it reached its zenith with the Modern.

Or it painted pages playfully with type; or acted as its own negation.

Peter J King Answer

84 Ruth 1.16 -17, but buried we sprout.

Woebegone, what’s left will do.

Not about Boaz, draw lots in Mexico.

Some are fools for us, it’s true.

In a novel around the house.

If you only knew, we’re blue.

Shakes, some trembles in trifles.

Like eels, my riddle grew and grew.

Amita Paul Answer

85 Before the window stands an uptight don, their hands around their student’s throat.

They pause - as if to gloat and with a wet laugh claim: “You will find my name between the message and the misheard messenger, or just riddle me this: I’m doubly doubly sure that I exist.”

Eloise Stonborough Answer

86 Flat and smooth and still it lies, echoes bounce the shouts and cries, chemical smell and stinging eyes, all will change who chase the prize.

Poised and still they wait the sign, each to their own dividing line, laser focus, rounded spine, all will change when all will shine.

Suddenly the shout of “GO” the leap of faith, the prayer for flow, with pounding hearts resistance low frothing shoulders row by row.

Skimming, cutting his advance level, low swift sideways glance, elbows sharp pierce like a lance, he spins at the turn, a whirlpool dance.

Skyward stare with lidless eyes She pounds away To cheers and cries, Advancing in reverse It’s a surprise she doesn’t bash her head!

(Two more now before I’d like to invite, You to guess where they are?

And just what is this sight?)

Now this third one’s considered “Recreationers’ ”blight, dumbfounding wild pounding “honest idiocy of flight”.

While this last is a blast, The fav. unparalleled, With the breast thus caressed And the back upward held.

Now please pick the four means By which each is propelled, And where are they?

Gill Newlyn Answer

87 (When) I’m 64, (but I am so much older …).

I am a lineman for the county.

Turn and face the strange.

I live on (the dark side of) a mountain and the sunny side of the street.

Joni saw me in the sky.

If there’s something you’d like to try Ask me, ask me, ask me.

Won’t you show me the way, every day?

May my champion stay forever young.

John Lanyon Answer

88 Whose French quiddity?

Dawn teaches powerlessness, schools me to repose.

A minor nature.

Noon advises acceptance, bids stay silent.

To unlock extract.

Dusk imbues passivity, renders me pliant.

Harbour a spirit.

Night endears the status quo, just letting things be.

Thomas McLucas Answer

89 You could consume it in a sense but it’s a nasty chemical, mind.

On beetles in leaves it’ll condense but first if you know how to find from a TV show learn how to stack it but only if you’ve got it first Foolish if you use a corn packet as something to slake your thirst It’s easy when you have practice to tell place from poem and fruit assisted by hayseeds and paddies C’mon, it’s a laugh, you can do it Amita Paul Answer

90 feline gifted, oft uplifted, sometime shifted; on occasions mighty, now and then flighty; objectively indoors, upstairs, subject to the sound of bears; goes around with “Ba” and “Ila”, after a bath, before hearing “Bah!” David Braund Answer

1 Answer

Trafalgar Square WC2.

Explanation

The stony lions in line 1 are the lions at the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.

The yearly sight in line 2 is the Christmas tree given to the people of Britain

by Norway in gratitude for the service given during the Second World War by members of Britain’s armed services.

“Quietly aloft” refers to Horatio Nelson at the top of his column which casts a slender shade.

The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 is commemorated on 21st October.

The “armed men” are members of the armed forces who assemble by the Cenotaph in Whitehall each Remembrance Day. The proof required at the end is given by deciphering the acrostic in which the first letter of each line spells out the answer.

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2 Answer Acorn.

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3 Answer Still life.

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4 Answer Tide.

Explanation Charles de Gaulle’s famous speech: we’ve lost the battle but not the war - it goes on.

Waves land but don’t stick.

Tides can be treacherous - and governed by specific laws of gravity.

The sea has been worshipped or, sarcastically, this is where we send so many “offerings”. The tides spit them back.

“All over the place” - every tidal coast.

Staring - the hypnotic rhythm of the sea.

“Shore” ends in “ore” so it does. I can confirm this.

The tide is “riddled” - and will be back for more.

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5 Answer Ear worm (a tune you can’t get out of your head).

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6 Answer Piano.

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7 Answer

Rocking chair.

Explanation

Babies might be rocked to sleep in a rocking chair, and old folk like sitting in them.

The rocking chair can only be moved by the person sitting in it.

The ribs allude to the frame of the rocking chair which may sigh or creak as it is rocked.

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8 Answer Blackberries.

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9 Answer The Shipping Forecast, broadcast daily by the Coastguard & Maritime Agency.

Explanation This riddle refers to some of the sea areas mentioned in the daily radio Shipping Forecast (UK).

“I’m in my forties”: Forties.

“I wear an old patterned jumper”: Fair Isle.

“I have good German teeth”: German Bight.

“I like driving my big vintage car”: Humber.

“I do a bit of fishing”: Fastnet or Fisher.

“I’m spending Monday in France”: Lundy.

“I’d like to make love with you in my car (in a car park)”: Dogger.

“That would feel like a victory”: Trafalgar.

“I have changed a bit”: the name of Finisterre was changed to Fitzroy.

“And I do feel a little redundant”: ships no longer rely on the Shipping Forecast.

“But I’m still well-loved”: many references in British culture.

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10 Answer Hope.

Explanation Hope is personified in an oil painting by George Frederic Watts as a blindfolded woman sitting on a globe playing a lyre with a single string; she is literally “on top of the world”.

My grandparents had a replica hanging on a wall at the bottom of their stairs...at the heart of their house. Their house was full of music.

I have the picture now (it needs framing…) in my home.

Hope is everywhere we look my friends…even in the darkest places.

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11 Answer Ramen.

Explanation 1 the Egyptian Sun God Ra. 2 the global population percentage of men in 2017, according to INED (Institut National d’Études Démographiques).

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12 Answer Part 1 Upper Volta or Haute Volta when part of the French West African empire; now Burkina Faso.

Part 2 Mikhail Kalashnikov who designed the AK 47 assault rifle.

Explanation Part 1 Line 2 refers to the Red, White and Black Volta rivers.

Line 4 refers to the volta of a sonnet.

Explanation Part 2 Line 3 refers to the fact that from 1984 until 1997, the official Burkina Faso coat of arms used a revolutionary central crest featuring a mattock crossed with a Soviet AK-47 assault rifle, seen today in lands where the rule of law is questionable (lines 5 to 6).

The arms in line 4 refer to firearms.

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13 Answer

Daisies/children.

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14 Answer

Anamorphosis.

Explanation

Anamorphosis is the distortion of an object. When seen full on, it looks distorted, but when seen from the side (“askew”) it looks normal.

One of the most famous examples of anamorphosis is the distorted skull or memento mori in the portrait of “The Ambassadors” by Hans Holbein the Younger which hangs in the National Gallery in London.

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15 Answer

Austerity.

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16 Answer HM The Queen.

Explanation The Queen was born in Mayfair.

“This little tomboy” - the Queen is quite short in stature and since she can dismantle an engine within minutes, owing to her war-time experience, and since she does a lot of outdoor sports, I called her a tomboy.

“Tread the stud farms of Kentucky”: the Queen spent a lot of time her refining her equine studies and skills.

“Before returning to her roots” - England.

“She became/more of a philanthropist in later life” - the Queen has many charitable causes.

“And has weathered much trouble through the years” - even an annus horribilis in 1992.

“With never a penny in her purse” - she never carries cash.

“She is happy nonetheless,/enjoying carefree sprees” - she’s a country girl at heart.

“Among flowers, wee ds, thistle and rose in the country” - some emblems associated with the Crown here.

“Or celebrating the early flowers of April” - born in April.

“When they arise” - as many do in her presence.

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17 Answer Signs of the zodiac.

Explanation Line 1: Capricorn (the Goat). Goats are symbols of lechery (goats and hegoats were considered as symbols of lust and witchcraft, not only for their association with Aphrodite and Dionysus, but also for their proneness to mate, for its natural instinct, almost from the moment in which they are born).

Line 2: Virgo (the Virgin), offering a contrast to line 1. Represented here by the blue associated with the Virgin Mary.

Line 3: Taurus (the Bull). The maze and “darkly” refer to the underground labyrinth inhabited by the Minotaur. The “half” indicates the monster as only half bull. The entwined alludes to Ariadne’s thread.

Line 4: Gemini (the Twins). The double referring to the two of them; the “one” noting they are also individuals.

Line 5: Cancer (the Crab) with its sideways movements.

Line 6: Scorpio (the Scorpion) - more deadly and with a sting in its tail.

Line 7: Sagittarius (the Archer) - here, rather boastful.

Line 8: Leo (the Lion) - a pun on pride as a collective term for a group of lions.

Line 9: Pisces (the Fish) and Libra (the Scales) - both are “scaly” (sorry!), but only one lives in water.

Line 10: Aries (the Ram) - using another meaning of “ram” as in battering ram.

Line 11: Aquarius (the Water Carrie)r - the “bear” a reference to the water bearer and the Age to the Age of Aquarius.

Line 12: a reference to horoscopes as a feature of magazines and newspapers.

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18 Answer

The pips.

Explanation

If you replace “A” with “a” in the first line, then “not quite a major” is a captain who sports three pips on his epaulette.

The pips on the radio herald the time.

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19 Answer Dandelion.

Explanation “A ginger-haired girl/and she sows to the four winds/on red and white dusk” - this part refers directly to the cover of Le Petit Larousse Illustré. In 1890, Eugène Grasset (1845-1917) designed the image of La Semeuse (the Sower) blowing dandelion seeds, which accompanies the motto of the Éditions Larousse, Je sème à tout vent (I sow to the four winds).

“She comes from Persia/but she wears a Phrygian cap/Eurasian offspring” - the Latin name Taraxacum originates in medieval Persian writings on pharmacy. The Persian scientist Al-Razi around 900 CE wrote “the tarashaquq is like chicory.” The Phrygian cap refers to a clue that comes in the next paragraph. Eurasian offspring refers to the fact that Dandelion originate from Eurasia.

“Her father, Eugene/master of visual arts/lies now on a cross” - this paragraph refers to Eugene Grasset (above) and Eugene Delacroix (the cross) who painted La Liberté guidant le peuple hence the Phrygian cap in the previous paragraph. All of this was supposed to guide you to the French etymology of the word dandelion - dent-de-lion.

“Her mother, Gaia/the empress of all things wild/still keeps her grounded” - this is simply a reference to Nature.

“Fiercer than a cat” - lion.

“Ubiquitous” - dandelion is found almost anywhere in the world.

“Multiform” - dandelion change from their yellow to their white feathery seeds almost overnight.

“Fangs so soft” - teeth – dents – dent-de-lion.

“Not ecclesiast/she dares to lead the people/crowned by Liberty” - this one refers to another name of dandelion in French couronne de prestre - “priest’s crown”. This paragraph contains again a reference to the painting of Eugene Delacroix, supposed to reinforce the French etymology of the word dandelion.

“Alongside Gavroche” - the boy near the woman guiding the people during the French revolution (Eugène Delacroix’s painting) is supposed to have inspired the character of Gavroche in Les Misérables.

“She falls on the battlefield/reborn the next day” refers to the transformation of the flower into its white feathery seeds.

“She remains with us/and carries our desires/to unknown places” dandelions (pissenlits in French) are still with us (unlike Liberty maybe) and carry our desires (wishes) when we blow on their seeds…to unknown places.

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20 Answer London Underground lines.

Explanation A green neighbourhood: District Line (green on the map).

If I had one of these I’d use it all the time, show my mettle about town: Hammersmith & City Line (“If I had a hammer” (the song); Mettle - metal; Smith - about town (city).

At Sherlocks convenience: Bakerloo Line (Sherlock Holmes’s residence Baker Street; Convenience - Loo).

All in a pickle over a collar: Piccadilly Line (Piccalilli and a picadil was a frilled collar made in the area in 17th century).

Humourless afternoon tea and cake: Victoria Line (Queen Victoria was not amused - Victoria sponge).

Power station, colourfully lit: Northern Line (Northern powerhouse Northern Lights).

Party time, a celebration: Jubilee Line.

Thirst quenching for flushed, bowler hatted gents: Waterloo & City (Water Loo (flushed); bowler hatted city gents).

I may repeat myself but I get around: Circle Line.

Cool, urban, up to date: Metropolitan Line.

Bullseye: Central Line.

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21 Answer Animals of Tanzania.

Explanation Title: Julius Nyerere was first President of Tanzania.

Stanza 1: lion (SIMBA in Swahili and the acrostic); syrup refers to Tate & Lyle’s Golden Syrup logo “out of the strong came forth sweetness”, a reference to Samson’s riddle in Judges 14:18; an adit is a horizontal mine shaft, a way into the lion’s hive.

Stanza 2: hippopotamus.

Stanza 3: zebra.

Stanza 4: giraffe.

Stanza 5: elephant.

Stanza 6: red spitting cobra.

Stanza 7: hyena.

Stanza 8: chameleon.

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22 Answer Playing cards.

Explanation Line 1 refers both to the metaphor of “a house of cards” and, more obliquely, in “ship-shape” to the notion of a deck.

Line 2 the King, Queen and Knave are known as the face cards. With four suits there are twelve of these in total. Most commonly, the face cards have designs which feature two images - one of them a kind of mirror of the other, hence “reflecting back”.

Line 3 French cards are the most widespread due to the geopolitical, commercial, and cultural influence of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States in the past two centuries. Another reason for their popularity is the simplicity of the suit insignia, which simplifies mass production.

Line 4 I took a liberty by capitalising Trump in the hope it would prove a red herring. The United States introduced the joker into the deck c. 1860 as a third trump card.

Line 5 refers to the suit of Spades through the idiom of “calling a spade a spade”. It also offers a clue to the solution in the use of the word “stick”, i.e. refusing to draw additional cards.

Line 6 plays on two meanings of “Club”: a sense of belonging/community and a simple, usually wooden, weapon.

Line 7 is for the suit of Diamonds. I again took liberties with capitalising here changing the James Bond of Ian Fleming’s Diamonds Are Forever to lower case.

Line 8 is for Hearts and refers to heart attacks and their capacity to prove fatal.

Line 9 is for calling Ace high or low which is a decision made by players in many card games (e.g. poker and blackjack).

Line 10 refers to the possibility of making or losing a fortune at cards.

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23 Answer Checkmate.

Explanation Each of the first 5 lines begins with a synonym for check and ends with a synonym for mate. The South American tea maté is pronounced differently (two syllables).

“Checkmate” comes from the Arabic ‫“ )شاه مات‬shah mat” - “the king is dead”. (“until the next time”) - the game is played.

“If you don’t say it, I will”: one of the players will say it at the end of the game.

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24 Answer “The Harmonious Blacksmith” by Handel, the final movement (an air and five variations) of his Suite No. 5 in E major, HWV 430 The literary association is with Siegfried Sassoon’s Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man in which Aunt Evelyn is heard playing the piece one evening and the author recalls this happy memory during his time at the Front.

Explanation Lines 3 and 4 refer to the sparks that might fly from a blacksmith’s anvil.

Lines 6 and 7 provide the structure of the piece.

Line 8 is a misleading reference to Heavy Metal pop music but also alludes to the objects forged in a smithy.

Lines 9 and 10 refer to the legend that Handel sheltered from a rainstorm in a smithy.

“Wagner” (line 11) is designed to throw you off the scent; the word is cognate with “waggoner” who might well require shoes for his horses.

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25 Answer Part A Riddler.

Explanation Riddler is the title of someone who twists and turns the champagne bottles in the cool and dark cellar to stop sediment from settling, but does it at the correct angle and so on to ensure the pressure doesn’t build up too much and the bottles explode. It’s an extremely male-dominated profession (hence patriarchal), and also a dying specialist art (arcane). I’m particularly proud of the rhyme of “classy/gassy” as a way of bringing out the class nature of this profession!

Part B André Aciman.

Explanation Part B asks you to think of an enemy of the Bat (Batman) - the Riddler. His real name is Edward Nigma (also spelled Nygma), or Enigma. “Play it a bit” leads you to the idea of piano playing variations on Enigma - Enigma Variations, which is a novel by André Aciman, also writer of Find Me, Harvard Square and possible most famous now, Call Me By Your Name.

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26 Answer

Gymnasium.

Explanation

The first two lines allude to the practice of people taking out gym membership at the start of each year but abandoning it a few months later.

The burdens in lines 5 and 6 are weights.

Lines 7 to 12 allude to other kinds of gym equipment.

Lines 13 to 16 illustrate the effort expended while at the gym, but the benefit to be obtained after a session.

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27 Answer

Rhyme.

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28 Answer

Robert Baer.

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29 Answer

Donald Trump.

Explanation

The first line evokes Trump’s orange complexion and the fact that he behaves like a spoilt baby.

The second relates to his being a complete arsehole.

The third identifies him as a clown.

The fourth gives the game away, describing the last trump.

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30 Answer

Trees.

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31 Answer The Old Man on the Mountain.

Explanation “The Old Man on the Mountain”, a rock formation on Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch, New Hampshire, is one of New England’s most famous tourist attractions--for at least 200 years. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s (who worked in the Customs House in Salem) story The Great Stone Face memorialized it; it is on our state license plate and all kinds of tourist kitsch.

There’s a state song about it, and several New England poets, good and bad, mention it in their works. In 2003, it collapsed, hence a pile of rubble, into what is still called Profile Lake.

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32 Answer Psalter/salter.

Explanation Line 3 refers to a psalter which contains the psalms.

Line 4 refers to a salter who provided seasoning to food (board) lacking taste.

Line 5 alludes to illuminated manuscript, feature of many medieval psalters.

Line 6 explains what the salter did.

Lines 8 and 9 - a person who attacks a woman would be said to “assault her”.

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33 Answer Ampersand.

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34 Answer

The future.

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35 Answer

Spider plant.

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36 Answer

Bowline or reef knot.

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37 Answer

Bob Dylan.

Explanation

Allen Ginsberg once referred to him as a “Column of Breath”. He wrote Blowing in the Wind, the answer to all questions.

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38 Answer

Malarkey.

Explanation

An affectionate cockney mother: Ma. An early riser: lark.

A tonal centre: key.

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39 Answer

Bats.

Explanation

Every line alludes to a bat, of the cricketing or animal variety.

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40 Answer Bullshit.

Explanation First: bull.

Second: shit.

Whole: bullshit.

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41 Answer

The four elements.

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42 Answer Writer’s block.

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43 Answer Glory.

Explanation In a secular world, glory isn’t so widely used in a religious way.

Gloria is a Latin woman’s name and Sic transit gloria mundi was part of Papal inaugurations with symbolic slow-burning of cloth.

Morning Glory is a flower and more likely than the word in a prayer in a secular society.

Sweet potato and bindweed are part of the same family (Convolvulaceæ) as Morning Glory and there’s a brand of frozen sweet potato in America called Glory.

Marcel Pagnol wrote memoirs of childhood in Provence, including La Gloire de mon Père and Le Château de ma Mère.

“Glory be to God” starts Hopkins’ poem Pied Beauty.

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44 Answer Nursery rhymes.

Explanation Line 1: “Hickory Dickory Dock” - Hickory is a tree of the genus Carya; there are allusions here to running up the clock (ascent) and the clock itself (timely).

Line 2: “Ring-a-Ring o’ Roses” - “Doubly encircling” for the repeated “ring”; “Maid of Kent” is a type of rose.

Line 3: “Mary Had a Little Lamb” - Mary as the Virgin; lamb is a title for her child, Jesus, which appears in the Gospel of John.

Line 4: “Three Blind Mice” - “pestilence” used here as a metaphor for mice; “watching” and “wild” refer to “see how they run”.

Line 5: “Rock-A-Bye, Baby” - this refers to the baby’s cradle in the treetop.

Line 6: as for line 5, but referring to the final line “down will come baby”, or hope for a better outcome for Humpty Dumpty!

Line 7: “Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake” - “kneading” refers to the opening line and “swift” to “bake me a cake as fast as you can”.

Line 8: “Goosy Goosy Gander” - which wanders “in my lady’s chamber” as the ‘errant fowl’. The reference to the “gift – elsewhere” is to Æsop’s fable of “The Goose that laid the Golden Eggs”.

Line 9: “Sing a Song of Sixpence” - the King is in his counting and the Queen in her parlour; both are “greedy” - he counting money, she eating bread and honey; the maid is hanging out clothes.

Line 10: a reference to the opening line of the riddle being the first lines of a nursery rhyme and also to such rhymes being with us since our earliest days, imprinted on our memories.

Line 11: the first half of this line is for all the bells in the rhyme “Oranges and Lemons”; the second half is for “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”.

Line 12: the first half of this line also refers to “Oranges and Lemons” with its line “here comes a chopper to chop off your head”; the second half of the final line refers back to the opening rhyme and the clock striking One.

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45 Answer

The novel.

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46 Answer Major solar system planets and the number of their moons.

Explanation Earth 1.

Mars, Roman god of war 2.

Jupiter, king of the gods and son of Saturn in Roman mythology 79.

Saturn, son of Uranus in Greek mythology 62 (*).

Uranus 27.

Neptune, Roman god of the ocean 14. (*) Wikipedia states 82 but NASA, who probably know a thing or two about space, shows 62 (https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/in-depth/) “Attractively in Greek, they wander” - “attractively” alludes to gravitational force; “planet” comes from the Greek πλανήτης (planetes), a wanderer Some named “hangers-on” which circulate around their host planet: Earth: Moon.

Mars: Deimos, Phobos.

Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto.

Saturn: Titan, Rhea, Enceladus.

Uranus: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon.

Neptune: Triton, Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea.

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47 Answer Berry.

Explanation Line 1: a rasp & berry.

Line 2: a silly goose & berry (with fool thrown in extra).

Line 3: Huckleberry [Finn].

Line 4: the bill of a [baseball] cap & berry.

Line 5: Maya Lin [designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC] who has gone & berry.

Line 6: feeling blue & berry.

Line 7: cloud & berry (although dew & berry also works).

Line 8: a reference to all of the above.

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48 Answer Champagne.

Explanation Champagne: often served at parties.

“Find me contained in every line”: each line represents a “vessel” for champagne.

“No longer here but so wise and wealthy”: SOLOMON - bottle containing equivalent of 26.6 normal bottles.

“The longest of lives, fate had dealt me”: METHUSELAH - bottle containing the equivalent of eight normal bottles.

“Spring time flower of every hue”: TULIP - a shaped champagne glass.

“To have me here is quite a coup”: COUPE (champagne saucer).

“Woodwind piper that’s my station”: FLUTE (glass).

“Has this opus sealed my reputation?”: MAGNUM bottle containing two bottles.

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49 Answer Rodin’s The Kiss.

Explanation “Southern skies”: the statue of Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Rimini is made from Carrara marble.

“Immovable”: it is very heavy!

“Both alive yet dead”: immortal love.

“Untouchable yet touching/us instead”: we are not allowed to touch the statue, but it touches us emotionally.

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50 Answer

The Riddle Me Reeeeee! group itself.

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51 Answer Lady Justice.

Explanation Justice makes amends, but it can also be used to promote violence (a fist).

It takes many shapes as everyone has their own idea of what justice is.

Lady Justice often wears a blindfold and holds a sword (spill blood) and a scale.

At the end of a court case, one person wins (for them justice appears) and another loses (for them, she seems to vanish).

Lady Justice is personified female but women are still under-represented in the legal profession (especially sitting as judges).

Everyone thinks justice is on their side (hence she holds a mirror to each optimist).

Lady Justice takes every side as people all invoke her to win their case.

However, there is also unequal access to justice (her eyes take coins because legal representation can be bought).

Justice also changes over time as the consensus shifts and therefore - as many have before - she questions her own existence.

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52 Answer Magpie.

Explanation One for sorrow Sorrow was the name of the flatulent dog that was stuffed and floated in the sea after a plane crash, in John Irving’s Hotel New Hampshire, prompting the line “Sorrow floats”.

Two for joy “Two for one fair lion-queen” – “Two” = two magpies; “for” = represents; “one” =; used colloquially to communicate how singularly marvellous the person in question is; “fair lion queen” = the woman in question is fair haired.

This woman in question is Joy Adamson (son of Adam); her real name was Friederike Victoria Joy Adamson, she was a naturalist, artist and author. Her book, Born Free, describes her experiences raising a lion cub named Elsa in Kenya , which she later released.

Three for a girl A pink flower (apologies for the un PC stereotypical girlie colour).

Four for a boy Noise with dirt on; is my fav description of a little boy; I don’t know where it comes from. The snotty nose is synonymous with the grubby little things.

Five for silver Afternoon tea’s posh: it’s a middle class thing, so quite posh. Posh Georgian tea services were made of silver.

Six for gold The historic King George V Gold Cup is one of the most prestigious prizes in British show jumping.

Seven for a secret never to be told MA-AAA-AAA-AAAG PI-IY- IY -IYYYY The magpie is black and white at first sight though it actually has a glorious mix of blues, purples and deep reds in the right light. It’s an unpopular corvid and is associated with black magic prompting some people to feel they need to cross themselves whenever they see them, though it is also seen as representing duality, bringers of good luck, trickery and deception, hence the contrasting messages in the rhyme.

It’s a scavenger, baby bird eater and kills lambs more frequently than foxes do; that’s nature.

It’s actually really beautiful , intelligent and is noted for exhibiting sadness at the death of its own.

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53 Answer Idioms.

Explanation 1.

Cat got your tongue? – why so quiet?

2.

Avoir le cafard (cockroach) in French/black dog – depression.

3.

To have a frog in your throat/chat dans la gorge – get gargling.

4.

Raining cats and dogs – raining heavily.

5.

The pot calling the kettle black – hypocrisy.

6.

A piece of cake/easy as pie – something easy.

7.

Tomar el pelo/pull your leg – to tease someone.

8.

Die Daumen drücken (press thumbs)/cross your fingers – for luck.

9.

猿も木から落ちる arum o ki kara ochiru/even a monkey can fall from a tree/pride comes before a fall – do not be arrogant.

10. Bob’s your uncle – your solution is found.

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54 Answer Dorothy Wordsworth.

Explanation Lines 9/10: take the word “potential” and change its word class by making it longer. A grassy meadow is a “lea”; adding “ly” onto “potential” gives “potentially”, which is a longer word and an adverb, not a noun.

Lines 11/12: breaking this word into two would give you a “potent ally” the person this refers to is a potent ally to whoever they are associated with.

The scene where their allyship is forged is the hearth; the centrality and importance of the exchange of ideas in the home.

Line 13: “vital” and “stream” are buzzwords linking to Lucy Newlyn’s Vital Stream publication, drawing out the intertwined link between the people in this poem. This person is vital, and someone who is domestic, mused at, yet also very much a part of the process, part of the stream of consciousness and nourishing cyclicality of thought or musings.

Line 14: Reynard is a fox; his dark homestead is a “den”. Add them together in a journal: Alfoxden Journal Line 15: much of this person’s journal contained notes about the charity of helping travellers out, but collecting their stories in a sort of cultural gift exchange. The value of stories as payment for aid etc.

Line 16: Dorothy Wordsworth initially wrote of the dancing daffodils, although this was kept private in her journals. It had the same potential, as WW used it for his famous poem.

Dorothy Wordsworth was both a potent ally to WW, and also had potential as a writer and poet in her own right.

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55 Answer

Form.

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56 Answer Rembrandt’s Belshazzar’s Feast.

Explanation

The baleful words are Mene, mene (as mentioned in the Book of Daniel, along with tekel and upharsin) which rhyme with “any” in line 1.

Belshazzar’s fellow guests, his neighbours, do not see the writing on the wall.

The painting was acquired by the National Gallery in London in 1964 and it hangs in Room 24.

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57 Answer

Sock.

Explanation

Wind sock.

Socks (and sandals).

Sock as in punch.

Sock as part of Heaney’s father’s plough in Follower; it’s second hand because he knew about the sock of a plough from his father.

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58 Answer

The Unknown.

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59 Answer

Onomatopoeia.

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60 Answer

Royal Assent.

Explanation

The first two lines describe an ascent - a royal ascent.

Rite of passage refers to the passage of a bill through Parliament.

The foreign tongue is Norman French.

Royal Assent is given on the Queen’s behalf.

The Bill is so well read as it has had three readings in each house of Parliament.

“La Reyne (or le Roy) le veult.”

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61 Answer Willow.

Explanation Village green - cricket - leather on willow.

Blue and white of the sky - porcelain cup - Willow Pattern.

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62 Answer Egg. Explanation First verse 1. Five good people, each of whom is “a good egg.”

Second verse 2. The island of Eigg, south of Skye, in the Scottish Highlands.

3. Human egg for transplant Third verse 4. Shaker egg - percussion instrument.

5. Which comes first? The chicken or the egg?

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63 Answer Floor.

Explanation Mistake: “flaw” a homophone with “floor”.

Taking questions from the floor.

“Flor” in Spanish is flower.

Wipe the floor with someone.

In French: ne pas avoir la lumière à tous les étages (the light’s not on on every floor) means dimwitted.

To take the floor.

Cutting room floor.

Where would we stand but the…?

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64 Answer Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion.

Explanation The initials are an anagram of ISAAC NEWTON. Sarah Killjoy is purely an invented name, representing a force needed to slow down the merry-go-round.

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65 Answer Woodchuck.

Explanation Line 1: Would/Wood Chuck, as in Charles.

Line 2: The damn things ate all my lettuce and kale 2 weeks ago.

Line 3: Echoing Candlemas canticle (February 2nd).

Line 4: …which is also Groundhog Day. Line 5: Woodchuck is derived from a Narragansett word for same creature.

Line 6: “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, If a woodchuck could chuck wood?” Hence pun-ishing, or punish-ing.

Simeon, in Luke, says “a light to lighten the Gentiles”, as the baby Jesus is being presented in the Temple for what used to be called the rite of Purification (for Mary). That feast, once called the Feast of the Purification and now called the Feast of the Presentation, is also called Candlemas.

Evensong did indeed co-opt the canticle, since it fits evening so well.

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66 Answer Part 1 Togo.

Explanation Rewrite “to go” in line 10.

Part 2 Greenwich.

Explanation All (and only) those countries lie on the line of zero longitude, the Greenwich Meridian.

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67 Answer Pride.

Explanation Each line refers to pride in some way: Line 1: pride comes before a fall.

Line 2: nine lives of a cat alluding to a pride of lions.

Line 3: love e.g. Gay Pride.

Line 4: a rainbow (an arc) appeared after the Flood, a symbol of hope and Gay Pride.

Line 5: Pride and Prejudice.

Line 6: reference to “daily bread” e.g. “Mother’s Pride”.

Line 7: honey e.g. “Granny’s Pride”.

Line 8: pride and joy.

Line 9: bread e.g. “Mother’s Pride”.

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68 Answer Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales.

Explanation 1. The Red Shoes.

2. The Ugly Duckling.

3. The Nightingale.

4. The Princess & The Pea. 5. The Emperor’s New Clothes.

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69 Answer Self-esteem.

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70 Answer Eternity.

Explanation Vauxhall Tavern is a famous LGBT bar in Vauxhall, and a key drag cabaret venue.

“The tea” or “The T” is a LGBT colloquialism (particularly drag, stemming from the Black American drag scene in the 60s) for gossip.

If something never runs dry (like the drinks at the tavern!), it goes on forever. Synonym: eternity.

And because I like a pun, drag gossip that never runs out is Eterni-tea!

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71 Answer “Life, the Universe and Everything”, the third book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Explanation The first line describes “Life.”

The second line is a red herring.

The third line describes “the Universe.”

The fourth line describes “Everything.”

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72 Answer Prune.

Explanation “What a sweet gig for a groovy old dude”: a prune is “sweet” and it looks like a “groovy old dude” because it is wrinkled and dried.

“A half-baked dope long stoned out of his mind”: “half-baked” is a clue to the semi-dried nature of a prune, including a mild red herring towards edibles; “stoned out of his mind” - plums often have their stones removed to become prunes.

“Spending all day sunbathing in the nude”: another line talking about how prunes are preserved through sun-drying.

“So you don’t get behind on your behind”: the butt of the joke! A play on the laxative effects of eating prunes.

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73 Answer Albums released in 1973.

Explanation Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield: it launched Virgin and was used in The Exorcist.

Killing Me Softly, Roberta Flack: the title song inspired by Don McLean so the legend goes.

Roxy Music (non-Mersey Ferry) Roxy Music: the cover shows Amanda Lear, Dalí’s famously ambiguous muse.

Aladdin Sane, David Bowie had anisocoria and a lightning design on his face on this cover.

Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd: the image of a prism and no title. Far out, man.

Solid Air, John Martyn: a hand and some “solid air”. All very 1973.

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74 Answer Mammon.

Explanation “Downcast I rose to global fame”: Mammon is doubly downcast in Paradise Lost. He is cast out of heaven but Milton also mentions “his looks and thoughts/were always downward bent, admiring more/the riches of Heaven’s pavement, trodden Gold,/then aught divine or holy enjoyed/in vision beatific”.

He rose to “global fame” by becoming worshipped on earth.

“Giving the meaning of my name” - the name Mammon means money or material wealth: in making people rich, Mammon gives the meaning of his name.

“I was a god, perhaps still am”: Mammon was a Syrian deity and is arguably still worshipped today.

“Can bless a life as well as damn”: such is money.

“And still find value in the flame”: in Paradise Lost, Mammon teaches the devils to extract gold from the flames of Hell to build their palace, Pandemonium. Also a reference to smelting to purify gold etc.

“I’ve been a spirit, prince, some claim”: in Past and Present, Thomas Carlyle says that the Gospel of Mammonism is the spirit of the nineteenth century.

In the middle ages, Mammon was regarded as one of the seven princes of hell.

“A miser, caveman (but now tame)”: Mammon is depicted as a miser in Jacques Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal. He protects a cave of wealth in The Faerie Queene.

“A wolf upbraided by a lamb”: this is a reference to Jesus saying “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.”

“Downcast I rose/to be figurehead for blame”: i.e. the condemnation of material wealth.

“Ambassador of England (shame!)”: Collin de Plancy describes Mammon as Hell’s ambassador to England.

“But still you bear my monogram/of sorts”: in the form of notes/coins (money begins with the second half of Mammon and I was also punning on MoneyGram).

“We tend each other pram/to grave”: another reference to “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon” but also the state of being born into the economy.

“Most love me all the same:” maybe not most, but a lot of people do.

“Downcast I rose”: some of these are very niche, but hopefully there was enough in there to go on.

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75 Answer Soul.

Explanation Line 1. The Germanic root of Soul means “coming from or belonging to the sea (or lake)”.

Line 2. Another word for Soul is Psyche - Ancient Greek for breath.

Line 3. Transmigration of souls Line 4. The belief that soul is present in the physical world Line 6. The soul or psyche is often figured as a butterfly.

Line 8. Soul is a mood in music as well as a kind of music.

Line 10. Transmigration of souls again.

Line 12. Soulful poetry is strongly emotive Line 14. The soul is not forever trapped in the body’s cage because it is immortal.

Line 16. Age will bring death. The soul prepares for flight as the body ages.

Line 18. The soul travels from one body to another.

Line 20. The soul, after death, finds immortal life.

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76 Answer Apennines.

Explanation Line 1 refers to the article A. Line 2 refers to a Pen which one holds in one’s hand.

Line 3 alludes to dressed up to the nines. Wraith is a red herring.

The second quatrain refers to Emily Dickinson’s (she lived in Amherst in New England in the USA) short poem on Thought which contains a picturesque reference to the Apennine Mountains.

Line 8 “Drinking from the Pierian Spring” refers to inspired poetry.

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77 Answer Vac. Explanation Think hoovering or long holidays.

Think detritus or climate and rays.

This word grows and shrinks, it’s the sucking in your sink and a break in our days in a daze.

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78 Answer Mirth.

Explanation Byron: “Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter. Sermons and soda water the day after.”

Blake: “Fun I love, but too much fun is of all things the most loathsome.

Mirth is better than fun, and happiness is better than mirth.”

Collins dictionary: Mirth is amusement which you express by laughing.

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79 Answer Cornwall.

Explanation Line 1 tells you that the answer-word is made up of two other stand-alone words like Bag & pipe, Scot & land and Wind & hover.

Line 2 tells you that it’s a place, a pleasant place and some guessers are already in it.

Line 3 alludes to Cornflowers and Corn Dollies.

Line 4 refers to Cornbread.

Lines 5 and 6 refer to Robert Frost’s poem Mending Wall which begins “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”.

Lines 7, 8 , 9 and 10 foretell that some guessers may not get the obvious point that they or some other members actually live in and are present right now in Cornwall, which is the plain and simple answer.

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80 Answer Oxymoron.

Explanation 1. “Fear Greeks bearing gifts” tells you that solution to this riddle (the gift of a word to the world) is Greek in origin. “Two-faced and double-edged” - the word is composed of two parts, which are opposites.

2. Oxymoron is used for special effect in rhetoric; it has also been applied to inadvertent or incidental contradictions, as in the case of “dead metaphors” (“barely clothed’ or “terribly good”).

3. The word oxymoron is autological: it is itself an example of an oxymoron…as is the foreign name in question.

4. The foreign name in question embodies oxymoron. Join its two parts and you have one proper name, one identity.

5. J R R Tolkien interpreted his own surname as derived from the Low German equivalent of dull-keen (High German toll-kühn) which would be a literal equivalent of Greek oxy-moron.

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81 Answer Crab.

Explanation “I am the way that all things surely go;”: carcinization is the process by which multiple different species have evolved to look like crabs.

“A sideways move, for most, on Jacob’s ladder.”: most crabs move sideways (Jacob’s ladder is mostly a red herring but an oblique reference to evolution).

“When I grip too hard to what I know”: crabs grip with their pincers.

“I get cantankerous with age, or madder”: synonyms for “crabby”.

“And cannot do the only thing that matters:/soften my edges and make space to grow/before my brittle edifice just shatters/under the weight of always saying no.”: a wordy way of describing a crab shedding its old shell and growing a new one.

“If only I could be more starry-eyed/than lonely: though my head is in the sky”: “starry-eyed” and “sky” are both references to the constellation Cancer (the crab); “lonely” is a reference to hermit crabs.

“My heart is in the dark places that hide”: crabs live in the “dark places”: the deep sea; “hide” refers to crabs burrowing or concealing themselves.

“The line between truth and the mimic’s lie.”: there are “true” crabs and “false” crabs that mimic the appearance of a true crab. A callback to the first line.

“I wish I were the kind of beast that could/bark like a dog or, maybe, like a god”: dog is to god as bark is to krab (crab).

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82 Answer Metaphor.

Explanation For “hello, again!” to be valid, the two or more persons involved must have met before. Another word for “before” is “afore” so the participants in this greeting must have “met afore”.

The people to whom this greeting is addressed are described as stars, so “stars” is a metaphor.

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83 Answer Concrete.

Explanation Line 1: the Romans made use of concrete.

Line 2: Modern architecture was formed in concrete.

Line 3: poetry (often) is displayed in “concrete” form i.e. with the lines arranged in blocks.

Line 4: the word “concrete” can be abstract as well as concrete; it acts therefore in some instances as its own negation.

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84 Answer Mangoes.

Explanation The reference to the Book of Ruth in line 1 shows that this is about “woman goes”.

“Woebegone” in line 2 indicates that “wo” (which sounds like “woe” should be removed from “woman goes” to leave “mangoes” which sprout when buried (line 1).

“Not about Boaz” indicates that this riddle is not about a man but something of which there are “lots in Mexico”, a source of mangoes for the US market.

Lines 4 and 7 contain references to “fools”, “shakes” and “trifles”; the “eels” in line 8 allude to jellied eels, and the jelly (which “trembles” in line 7).

The novel in line 5 is David Davidar’s House of Blue Mangoes.

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85 Answer Iris.

Explanation “Window” – the eyes are the window to the soul.

“Uptight” – the iris controls the muscle that contracts the pupil.

“Don” – to support student later.

“Around their student’s throat./They pause – as if to gloat – “student”: the pupil of the eye; “pause” : a red herring; “gloat” – supporting “laugh” later.

“And with a wet laugh claim:/You will find my name” - “wet laugh” – the aqueous humour of the eye which drains through the iris.

“Between the message and/the misheard messenger” - “the message” – Iris means rainbow, which was the message given from God after the flood; “misheard messenger” – Eiris means “messenger” in Greek, was a double meaning in the Goddess Iris’s name.

“Or just riddle me this:/I’m doubly doubly sure that I exist.” - I have two “I”s and two “eyes”.

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86 Answer Swimming Strokes.

The four different swimming strokes asked for are: 1. Front crawl 2. Backstroke 3. Butterfly 4. Breast stroke Explanation Stanza 4: Front crawl - the only swimming stroke that involves a swift sideways turn of the head to take breath between strokes.

Stanza 5: Back stroke - this stroke involves swimming on one’s back, ergo looking up at the roof with lidless eyes - goggles.

Stanza 6: Butterfly stroke - describes the action of the arms in this stroke.

The last line is a quote from Robert Graves poem The Cabbage White which describes the flight of a butterfly.

Stanza 7: Breast stroke - a 'breast caressed' suggests the breast stroke.

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87 Answer I Ching.

Explanation (When) I’m 64: the I Ching consists of 64 hexagrams. (but I am so much older …): the I Ching is about 3000 years old.

I am a lineman for the county: each hexagram has six lines.

Turn and face the strange: from David Bowie’s Changes.

I live on (the dark side of) a mountain: the yin. and the sunny side of the street: the yang.

Joni saw me in the sky: from Amelia by Joni Mitchell: “It was the hexagram of the heavens, it was the strings on my guitar”.

If there’s something you’d like to try/Ask me, ask me, ask me: the I Ching is an oracle/Ask by The Smiths).

Won’t you show me the way, every day?: the I Ching is Taoist text - the Tao translates as “The Way” - Show me the Way by Peter Frampton.

May my champion stay forever young: Carl Jung was an avid proponent of the I Ching and wrote the foreword to the most famous translation.

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88 Answer Acquiescence.

Explanation Verse 1 “Whose” in French: “à qui”.

“Quiddity” : essence.

French also suggests the word may have a French origin.

Dawn: acquiescence is something that bids you to repose/stay quiet when you are meant to be waking up into action (and keeps you that way through the rest of the day).

To repose: the Latin for this is quiēscere.

I thought “schools” might possibly also hint at something Latinate.

Verse 2 A minor = a key (musically speaking).

Nature = essence.

Quiēscere also means to be or render silent.

Verse 3 To unlock you use a key.

An extract: an essence.

Verse 4 Harbour: a quay.

Spirit: essence.

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89 Answer Limerick.

Explanation Line 1 refers to something you can eat: lime.

Line 2 warns you that the word can also mean a chemical you normally should not consume: lime, as in quicklime or slaked lime.

Line 3 refers to is the use of lime in the preparation of a popular Indian digestif called Paan where a reddish brown paste and lime are spread on a betel leaf. Lime in paste form condenses or slowly hardens on betel leaves.

Line 4 tells you that by now you should have found out what the first part of the Answer-Word is.

Line 5 begins with a reference to the popular TV show, Rick and Morty; the second part of line 5 uses the word “stack”, a synonym of rick.

Line 6 warns you that Parts Two and Three of the Riddle will only make sense if you first get Part One right.

Line 7 refers to a corn packet meaning a way to store corn meaning here the corn harvest which again refers to a rick, here a corn-rick.

Line 8 warns you not to take the two word parts literally because a corn-rick cannot slake quicklime. You must take “lime” from quicklime and “rick” from corn-rick and put them together to form Limerick.

Lines 9 and 10 indicate the answer-word after stacking together “lime” and “rick”.

Lines 11 and 12 encourage you to help in collaborative riddle-solving by stacking up guess on guess as in ricks of hay and paddy. “Paddies” is also a

nod to Ireland where Limerick is located, since Irishmen are sometimes referred to as Paddies by the British.

Line 12 particularly indicates that you are right if you guessed “limerick”, because limericks are often humorous.

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90 Answer Bathsheba.

Explanation Who’s she then? Something the cat brought in?

Put on a pedestal.

Dressed for a 1001 bodice-rippers. e.g. she who must be obeyed.

Self-explanatory.

Her indoors, her upstairs; her, object of subject, she. she (subject) bears or bares (bit naughty, that one).

Sheba and Sheila.

Bathsheba.

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Contributors Darrell Barnes was in banking (when it was a respectable profession) but has since rejoined the real world. He lives in London.

Eleanor Bradley is an English teacher. She lives in a tiny hamlet in Gloucestershire.

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Bruce Graver is Professor of English at Providence College in Rhode Island, USA. Helene Guojah divides her time between event catering and renovating an 18th century cottage in Cornwall.

Chris Hardy is a poet and musician who lives in West Sussex.

Peter J King was born and brought up in Boston, Lincs. Active on the London poetry scene in the 1970s, he returned to poetry in 2013 after a long absence, and publishes and performs his own poetry, as well as translating, mainly from modern Greek and German.

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Rob Miles is a poet and academic based in West Yorkshire.

Gill Newlyn taught fiddle for 30 years, has just released a well received album, is now a sculptor, though originally trained as a British Horse Society Intermediate Instructor, working with, for and teaching Olympic gold medal eventers. She doesn't read or write poetry but she enjoys a riddle.

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Sébastien Revon is a pharmacist living in West Cork, interested in poetry and more particularly in haiku writing.

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Vivienne Tregenza is a Cornish poet and first time Riddler who hails from Mousehole.

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