Sunday, July 4, 2010

Spangled with stars

Spangled with stars the sky
Whose light you take a last look at —

not more than eight times

. . . . . . . .

Apparently, the OED folks across the pond don't hold a grudge: the word of the day for the erasure poem is "star-spangled."

The etymology does note that Francis Scott Key didn't coin the expresion in 1814; it turns out Josuah Sylvester penned (quilled?) "star-spangled" in 1591.

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