SLSL Intro "Tendrils"

[Dave Monroe]

"I will spare everybody a detailed discussion of all
the overwriting that occurs in these stories, except
to mention how distressed I am at the number of
tendrils that keep showing up.  I still don't know for
sure what a tendril is.  I think I tok the word from
T.S. Eliot.  I have nothing aginst tendrils
personally, but my overuse of the word is a good
example of what can happen when you spent too much
time and energy on words alone." (SL, "Intro," p. 15)


Main Entry: ten·dril 
Pronunciation: 'ten-dr&l
Function: noun
Etymology: probably modification of Middle French
tendron, tendrum bud, cartilage, from (assumed) Vulgar
Latin tenerumen, from Latin tener tender -- more at
TENDER
Date: 1538
1 : a leaf, stipule, or stem modified into a slender
spirally coiling sensitive organ serving to attach a
climbing plant to its support
2 : something suggestive of a tendril <hair hanging in
tendrils> <creeping tendrils of fog>
- ten·driled or ten·drilled  /-dr&ld/ adjective
- ten·dril·ous  /-dr&-l&s/ adjective

http://m-w.com/mw/art/tendril.htm

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

A tendril is a slender stem- or petiole-like structure
that is used by vines and lianas (climbing plants) to
wrap around or to hook a support....

http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/generalbotany/typesofshoots/tendril/

And see as well ...

http://www.bartleby.com/65/te/tendril.html

http://www.bartleby.com/62/80/T1518000.html


T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1935)

IV 

Time and the bell have buried the day, 
The black cloud carries the sun away. 
Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematis 
Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray 
Clutch and cling? 
Chill 
Fingers of yew be curled 
Down on us? After the kingfisher's wing 
Has answered light to light, and is silent, the light
is still 
At the still point of the turning world.... 

http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/norton.html

http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/index.html

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/norton.htm

http://archive.salon.com/audio/poetry/2001/03/22/eliot/index

I will of course endeavor to keep a running tendril
count as we work our way through Slow Learner ...

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