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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--palinode This week's theme: words about poetry. palinode (PAL-uh-noad) noun A poem in which the author retracts something said in an earlier poem. [From Greek palinoidia, from palin (again) + oide (song).] The illustrator and humorist Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) once wrote a poem called The Purple Cow: I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one; But I can tell you, anyhow, I'd rather see than be one. The poem became so popular and he became so closely linked with this single quatrain he later wrote a palinode: Confession: and a Portrait, Too, Upon a Background that I Rue! Oh, yes, I wrote 'The Purple Cow,' I'm sorry now I wrote it! But I can tell you anyhow, I'll kill you if you quote it." It was the same Burgess who coined the word blurb. -Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org) "The more lighthearted palinodes were more successful, such as Geoff Horton's recantation of his youthful view that a martini should be shaken rather than stirred." Jaspitos; I Take It Back; The Spectator (London, UK); Jan 24, 2004. X-Bonus The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead. -Robert Brault, software developer, writer (1972- )

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