posted
Please help me out here with an informal survey on an extremely TRIVIAL point of knowledge. I’m just trying to find out if my own response was average or off the scale in one direction or the other.
So pretend you are in some kind of trivia game and the following “complete the quote” is asked to you. DO NOT GOOGLE THIS OR GRAB ANY REFERENCE BOOKS. JUST ANSWER AS YOU WOULD, RIGHT NOW, AS THOUGH YOU WERE IN A GAME SORT OF SETTING.
And an answer like, “I don’t have a stinkin’ clue!” Is a perfectly OK answer.
Of course, after you have answered, then feel free to do the Google thing. In a couple of days I will explain why this came up and how I answered it. (In case anyone cares.) (There is the remote possibility that this could lead to the chance of winning bets and stuff. We’ll see.)
So anyway here is the question: Complete the following quote -
“Water water everywhere . . .”
Posts: 631 | Registered: Oct 1999
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You should probably include something like "Don't read any of the replies below until you've posted your answer."
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Actually, I'm pretty sure the quote is this:
"Water, water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink, Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink"
I didn't google, but I did write a paper on this poem just this semester, and I know I quoted that line, so I'm about 97% confident I have it right.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
...And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.
When I was a rising senior in high school, I spent a summer in North Carolina, taking classes at Duke U. There was an intro poetry class, and this poem was covered. The professor liked to ask one student to read a poem and another to interpret the poem. He picked me to read this.
The entire class, professor included, convulsed with laughter when I recited in my thick New York accent: "Wawtah, wawtah evrywheah, and awl the bawds did shrink; wawtah, wawtah evywheah, naw any drop to drink".
Thank you for bringing up such a painful memory. While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice in it?
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
What comes to my mind first is "and not a drop to drink."
I know it isn't the actual wording in the poem that it's from, but it's become a proverb in that form and I'd bet "Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink" is said more often than the original. I know I've heard it much more often that way.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I answered, "... and not a drop to drink.", which a quick search shows both is slightly off and omits the "boards" line that comes before the "drop" line.
Also, apparently the original poem says "every where", not "everywhere".
Posts: 781 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I think it's "nor any drop to drink" but it's really quoted that way because it doesn't make sense with how we use "nor" - we use "nor" when there are two things being excluded, but there it seems like only one thing - a drop to drink - is being excluded, so why the "nor"? So, we change it to "not" and add the "and" to keep the meter.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
"... and ne'er a drop to drink," although I suspect it is more like "nor/not any drop to drink."
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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quote:Originally posted by SenojRetep: "water, and nary a drop to drink." Its Coleridge, I think.
I've always thought there was that extra "water" for some reason. "Water, water, everywhere water;" my paradigm has been shifted.
Posts: 2926 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
I was going to wait until Monday but, OK Dragon, here is what caused all this. (And BTW it's kind of nice that my daughter is in her twenties and I'm finally smart again.) Anyway, she phoned me and said, "Quick! Complete this quote for me: 'Water, water, everywhere . . ."
I said, "That's easy. It's, 'Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink.' It's from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge."
I heard her then loudly gloat to whomever was in the room with her, "Ha ! Ha ! See, I was right. I win."
Then I said to her, "I'm certain that's what it is but wait a minute and I'll Google it so we can have confirmation in case anybody challenges it." Which I proceeded to do and, sure enough, I was wrong. The actual line is: "Nor any drop to drink."
The whole quatrain is :
Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink ; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.
Oh well, at least I got the poem name and author right.
But what interested me more was the fact that almost all of the Google index items that appeared at my search had "Water, water, every where and not a drop to drink." So it seems to be a rather rampant misquote.
Extremely fascinating huh? And extremely trivial like I said.
So now that Belle, and Tante, and others (you know who you are) have set the record straight on this, I'd still be interested to know how many others, like me, thought it was, "And not a drop to drink." or some such.
Meanwhile, I'm going to try to win some bets with this.
Tante, I'm really sorry this dredged up a painful memory. If I'd have known it was going to do that I'd have rubbed it in a little more.
And what Homer Simpson said. Only make it a double.
posted
I keep running into popular misquotes. I’d always thought that the Laurel and Hardy quote was, "Well, that's another fine mess you've gotten us into." But apparently Ollie never said that.
What he always said was " . . . another NICE mess . . ." That's at least according to the following source:
posted
. . . which was listed in catalogs as "Another Fine Mess." (Not so much a myth-take as missing a deadline. )
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I run in to these a lot. People somehow think I'm some sort of foremost expert on movie quotes or something; not sure what I did to earn that title.
Thinks like "Play it again, Sam" never being spoken in Casablanca, or Kirk never saying "Scotty, beam me up!" It happens more often than people think.
Songs... that's a whole other monster.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I haven't read the thread yet, in order to give an accurate answer. Time to go read it and find out I'm way to late to answer.
"... you're gonna get wet."
Edit: Ahhahahahah! I kill me! You guys are all thinking literary quotes and stuff and here I am quoting a children's song on the Kid's Songs videos from when I was younger. Heh, I'm such an ignoramus. Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Thinks like "Play it again, Sam" never being spoken in Casablanca, or Kirk never saying "Scotty, beam me up!" It happens more often than people think.
My favorite is the oft misquoted "Dr. Jones, no time for love!" as "No time for love, Dr. Jones!"
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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