Vocabulary for Emily
(about Emily Dickinson)

Myth

Sniffy Says: A myth? Sometimes people use the word "myth" to mean something that isn't true, like "It's a myth that hamsters are skinny." Well, it's very clear that I am not skinny, but I am cute. A myth is also a story that has been told for thousands of years. They are often stories about supernatural beings like gods and goddesses or very strong men and very beautiful women. Apparently, there are no myths about hamsters, but I'm going to change that. Someday they'll tell the story of Sniffy, the hamster, the super wordsmith, the warrior of definitions—too bad I won't be around to hear it.

mystery

Sniffy Says: Mystery? What is mystery? Well, it's a mystery to me! Ha, ha, ha, ha. I crack myself up. A mystery is something that is hard or even impossible to understand. Now when something is hard or impossible to understand and it fills us with wonder and awe and, and what I call, Wowness, then that's a mystery. Do you know what wowness is? Well, I'll tell you. When you are at the beach and you can smell the ocean and hear the seagulls and feel the cool breeze of a summer evening and you see the sun setting on the horizon and you look out across the surface of the sea and say, "Wooowwwwwww!" That's wowness and that's mystery. Wow!"

bluebells

Sniffy Says: Bluebells are bulbous plants—that means they grow from bulbs, not light bulbs, that would just be silly, though I did plant a light bulb once and it grew into a tree that had Christmas lights for fruit—anyway, look at the picture, bluebells have flowers that look like little trumpets. Fact is, we in the hamster world use them in our rock bands. I play the bluebell, but, unfortunately, I usually always eat it before the end of the song. Have I told you I like to eat?

©2005-2012 Glen Draeger (all rights reserved)
Millstone Education: World Literature / http://www.millstoneeducation.com/worldLit