Hello my little adding machines, and welcome to this week's Word Garden Word List poetry prompt!
This time, our source is Amy Wallace's fascinating biography of William James Sidis, entitled The Prodigy. I read it way back in 1988 (I have kept a book log since late1987)and have never forgotten it.
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| Amy Wallace |
Never heard of Willam James Sidis? Well, back in 1910, his name was synonymous with the phrase "child prodigy." His IQ was estimated to be 50-100 points higher than Einstein's. His father was a pioneer in the field of abnormal psychology; he and his wife believed that they could create a genius in the cradle. They hung ABC blocks above his crib and within six months little Billy was speaking. At three, he was typing and had taught himself Latin! At five, he wrote a treatise on anatomy, and at six he spoke at least seven languages fluently.
The youngster enrolled at Harvard at age eleven, stunned the nation with a lecture on four-dimensional bodies, and articles about him ran on the front pages of the nation's leading newspapers. Graduating at sixteen, he was desperate for privacy.
William had had enough, and staged a dramatic rebellion against his parents, academia, and the world's expectations. It began with jail and a scandalous trial. He then drifted from one menial job to another, concealing his genius but writing a number of books on various subjects using pseudonyms. One of these dealt with his favorite hobby--the collecting of streetcar transfers.
Today, his name means one thing to a handful of educators--a burned out failure who died, ironically, of a cerebral hemorrhage. But now, in an era of parents frantically trying to push their children into achievement at ever-earlier ages, William James Sidis's story is more relevant than ever. In his own way, Sidis's life was a success of living on his own terms, rather than everyone else's.
What we do here is to use at least 3 of the 20 words provided in a new original poem of one's own. Then simply link up, visit others, and do the math, dahling. This prompt remains active through Saturday.
And now, your List:
books
cotton
cram
dishes
enormous
famous
fat
girls
hellish
instantly
legend
love letters
midnight
numbered
problems
rained
riot
sewing
Sunday
trance
What an interesting subject, Shay. It is often the case that adolescents, given too much attention at such a self-conscious age, rebel, or try to hide their talents. I had not heard of him. A prodigy indeed.
ReplyDeleteI may be able to come up with something, as long as there is no math involved.
ReplyDeleteWe will raise our baby poems to be geniuses!
ReplyDeleteMy poem grew up to be a feckless dullard. Starting over with this week...
DeleteCould not resist Freddie and Fat-Bottomed Girls!!!!!! You are bad.
ReplyDeleteWhat an eye-opening account of his life! It seems he lived most of his childhood without one. How sad. But I'm glad he broke free finally to live his life on his own terms.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the prodigious words! Jae
ReplyDeletepotential is such a fraught word. Thank you for the prompt; I'm going to look up this book, having been a similar (if much paler) imitation ~
ReplyDeleteWow that is really a fascinating story Shay! I hope to be back, but we will see.
ReplyDeleteGo easy on this virgin in the Coal Garden! My guitar has more than a few broken word strings. And yes, I did play "Fat Bottom Girls" with my band Slick Richard back in the day. Oh, I have such amends to pay.
ReplyDeleteLate to the party as usual, but here nonetheless. Thanks as always for the nudge to write, which no one needs more than I.
ReplyDeleteWasn't sure I'd get it done, but I made it. Thanks, Shay.
ReplyDeleteAmazed that I came up with something. Your word list drew an old memory out of me - a sewing class I took once - that I hadn't thought about in AGES.
ReplyDeleteDid you link?
DeleteSo very late to the list. I didn't know where I could go with your list, but I finally landed in my childhood. Thank you so much for the inspiration Shay.
ReplyDelete