Unbalance: Teeter
1867 James Russell Lowell Biglow Papers Series II
An’ I tell you you’ve gut to larn thet War ain’t one long teeter
Betwixt I wan’ to an’ ‘Twun’t du
-
war
hell
dead
enemy
failed
fighting
god
lost
adversity
apologizing
appeal
aspirations
blood
bloodshed
brotherly
carry
charm
crimes
crueler
cruelty
danger
dangers
defeated
dissatisfied
facts
forever
golden
grow
guilty
hardship
hate
hesitate
hopes
humiliation
inheritance
killed
killing
kindness
liberties
liberty
lies
life
love
magnitude
momentous
nothing
owned
perfect
power
promise
purged
reform
sadness
share
spies
strife
truth
vainly
whipping
wish
Notes: Lowell wrote this long poem in response to or inspired by the American Civil War. In this and other writing he attempted to emulate the true Yankee accent in the dialogue of his characters. See https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/13310/pg13310-images.html – a search for “teeter” in the document will bring you to the passage.
I find it next to impossible to read. What language were others using at that time? Using around twenty quotes about the Civil War, written at that time, I selected key words and ordered them by count of occurrences and then alphabetically to create the accompanying list.
Materials used: Galvanised steel wire, fishing weights, wooden block. Photographic documentation continues to be unsatisfying, so I have made an initial experiment with video. One of the delightful things about this piece is how much it teeters, while still requiring surprising effort to dislodge. The balance point is a vertical wire sharpened to a point, on which sits a horizontal 1.57 mm wire that has been hammered flat and given a pockmark. The fact that it can fail, can fall, seems important and appropriate.
More glossary entries
Structure based on lists
Glossary as a list of words connected with unbalance