May 112009
Therewith ye ben so mery and jocounde
That at revel when I see you daunce
It is an oyntement unto my wounde,
Though ye to me ne do no dalliaunce.
The refrain of this bit of Chaucer’s ‘Rosemounde’ contains six two-letter words in a row.
Find a line of English poetry with seven.
I know a two-digit number is not a two-letter word, but this is the best I can do at the moment. I’ll keep looking.
POSTSCRIPT
Permit me – if you do not mind -
To add it would be screaming fun
If, after printing this, I find
Them after all at 81.
Or 70 or 63,
Or 55 or 44,
Or 39 and going free,
Or 28 – or even more.
Hilaire Belloc, ‘Short Ballade and Postscript on Consols and Boers’
Writing verse using words of two letters
Is a thing that’s not done by my betters.
But I must here have something to show -
So it is up to me to do so.