Vocabulary Builder – Week 3, 2022

Hello and welcome to our weekly vocabulary builder. This blog comes to you every Wednessday only at Laminsa Indies. If you’re yet to subscribe to our website, kindly do so.

Today, we’ll break the normal procedure of our lessons to look into a poem that espouses the journalistic desire to create an imapact in the society using words and, in general, writings. Read with me.

Smiting Pen

O smiting pen, my weapon,
listen to my plea this season,
go to the corners of the world,
to my people who into wiles are sold,
into vice,
into malice;
the vile thoughts of bandits,
the serpent’s slander that bites
and the shedding of innocent blood
which make make me feel so mad.

O smiting pen, my weapon,
whirl upon these your brimstone;
spring up and spread like wild fire
and consume this world’s biggest liars
with your ink
finer than mink;
smite our sins long ago
to let all learners grow;
smite the corrupt gourmand
and give my people back their land.

O smiting pen, my weapon,
o smiting pen, my weapon,
rise up like a restless cow;
o how I want to see you act now!
Tread upon evil
things that many marvel.
Bring down the sin of colourbar
and the nepotistic dealings of my neighbour.
Tear the stained shirts of necromancers
who provoke spirits as men take bracers.

O smiting pen, my weapon,
spring up into the morning silence
and devour with the strength of romance
even unto that, which is not yet known,
the black,
the wicked dark;
stretch out and make the demons scatter
and spectres of immorality shutter;
spin out the insecurity in my country,
o that man-poachers cross not the boundary.

O smiting pen, my weapon,
listen; jot down my slogan,
write and reach out to my people,
wash out evil and make their hearts supple,
and clean,
of no sin,
rich in resources, both human and nature,
and the covert pulchritude of good teachers;
redeem street urchins and cold hands,
now and forevermore in the lands.

Poem by Lamittan Minsah.

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Meaning of italicized words and phrases

Slander: a malicious statement made with the intent of injuring someone’s reputation.

Mink: the fine fur or pelt of a mink (a semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammal in the Mustelinae subfamily, similar to weasels, with dark fur, native to Europe and America) used to make apparel.

Gourmand: a greedy or ravenous eater; according to the poem, a person with unimaginable greed for people’s property.

Colourbar: racism.

Necromancers: persons who perfom witchcraft, especially involving death or the dead (like raising the dead using dark magic).

Spectres: ghosts; phantoms.

Man-poachers: kidnappers.

Pulchritude – physical beauty (in this case, covert pulchritude means non-physical beauty); comeliness.

Cold hands – ruthless and unfeeling people.

Common mistakes to avoid

Using bing that in place of because or since.

It is generally nonstandard to use “being that” when making reasons. Instead, use “because” or “since”.

Examples:

UNCONVENTIONAL: Being that James studied gynecology, we expected it would be easy for him to know his wife had obstetric fistula.

UNCONVENTIONAL: We expected it would be easy for James to know his wife had obstetric fistula being that he studied gynecology.

CONVENTIONAL: Because James studied gynecology, we expected it would be easy for him to know his wife had obstetric fistula.

CONVENTIONAL: We expected it would be easy for James to know his wife had obstetric fistula since he studied gynecology.

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Many thanks for reading. Kindly let me know your thoughts in the comments section. Till we meet again next Wednesday for another chapter, keep reading our blogs.

Also check:

1. Vocabulary Builder – week 1, 2022.

2. Vocabulary Builder -Week 2, 2022.