Cookies, part Three: the Chorus
Tonight it’s time to work on the chorus of I’m Cookies For You. The tools we will be using are our trusty rhyming dictionary, our dictionary/thesaurus widget, and, believe it or not, a crumbling, decrepit copy of The Joy of Cooking. Why the cookbook? Well, as I said in the previous post, the chorus of the song is going to basically be a list of various kinds of cookies, After all, the chaplain says: I'm cookies for you! So let’s consult our cookbook. I’m inclined toward the funny sounding or the foreign sounding cookies. Here is the list I’m going to draw from:
anise drops, profiteroles, croquembouche, charlottes, brownies, tortelettes, ginger snaps, pfeffernüsse, cocoa kisses, macaroons, wafers, pinwheels, speculatius, springerle, plum bombs, oblaten, gaufrettes, nut balls, pralines cookies, oatmeal cookies, crumpets, biscuits, divinity, butterscotch, toffies, peanut brittle, pecan drops, pecan puffs, sacher, ladyfingers, madeleines, milanos, pinaccios, quadratinis, hermits, biscotti, mandelplaettchen.
That’s quite a list. I'm sure it's incomplete. Additionally, each cookie will be preceded by an adverb that means “absolutely.” Now, courtesty of our thesaurus widget, here’s a partial list of adverbs: completely, simply, clearly, utterly, totally, positively, perfectly, wholly, fully, quite, thoroughly, unreservedly, definitely, certainly, categorically, unquestionably, undoubtedly, surely, decisively, conclusively, manifestly, exactly, precisely, without a doubt, to the hilt, every inch.
Okay, so these are the words we have to choose from, let’s try to put them together. But before we do, a thought occurs to me. We don’t have to use adverbs that make sense. I mean, it would be fun to just use crazy, meaningless words. We could make up desserts that sound real, but that aren’t quite real. After all, our chaplain is crazy in love. He knows not what he speaks. Also, we’re limited as to what words we can use by the number of syllables to a line, the stress of the words, the rhyme scheme, etc. Which reminds me: I’ve forgone the idea of having an end-of-line rhyme scheme in the chorus. Instead, I’m going to employ inner rhymes like assonance (vowel rhymes) and alliteration (consonant rhymes). I’d also like to try to use consonance. Consonance is a cool way to rhyme words in which every consonantal sound after the accented vowel is the same, but the accented vowel itself is different. For example: willow, shallow; hill, call. So let’s get to it. Here's the chorus:
i'm cookies for you!
absolutely anise!
positively peppernutty pfeffernüsse!
we're toffees, we two.
simply speculatius!
manifestly mandelplaettchen, me and you!
yes, cookies for you!
truly tortelletty!
unquestionably coconutty macaroons.
we're brownies, to boot!
lovely ladyfingers!
quite a pair of quadratinis, me and you!
You'll notice that I've played with the words a little. Where I needed an extra syllable I turned nouns into adjectives, as in "coconutty", "peppernutty", and "tortelletty". I think the line "unquestionably coconutty" is a bit wordy. I'll have to see if there are some other possibilities there. But for now I have to pause. We've written enough to get us started, but now I have to step back and consider the form of the song before I can continue with the lyrics. More on that in the next post!
anise drops, profiteroles, croquembouche, charlottes, brownies, tortelettes, ginger snaps, pfeffernüsse, cocoa kisses, macaroons, wafers, pinwheels, speculatius, springerle, plum bombs, oblaten, gaufrettes, nut balls, pralines cookies, oatmeal cookies, crumpets, biscuits, divinity, butterscotch, toffies, peanut brittle, pecan drops, pecan puffs, sacher, ladyfingers, madeleines, milanos, pinaccios, quadratinis, hermits, biscotti, mandelplaettchen.
That’s quite a list. I'm sure it's incomplete. Additionally, each cookie will be preceded by an adverb that means “absolutely.” Now, courtesty of our thesaurus widget, here’s a partial list of adverbs: completely, simply, clearly, utterly, totally, positively, perfectly, wholly, fully, quite, thoroughly, unreservedly, definitely, certainly, categorically, unquestionably, undoubtedly, surely, decisively, conclusively, manifestly, exactly, precisely, without a doubt, to the hilt, every inch.
Okay, so these are the words we have to choose from, let’s try to put them together. But before we do, a thought occurs to me. We don’t have to use adverbs that make sense. I mean, it would be fun to just use crazy, meaningless words. We could make up desserts that sound real, but that aren’t quite real. After all, our chaplain is crazy in love. He knows not what he speaks. Also, we’re limited as to what words we can use by the number of syllables to a line, the stress of the words, the rhyme scheme, etc. Which reminds me: I’ve forgone the idea of having an end-of-line rhyme scheme in the chorus. Instead, I’m going to employ inner rhymes like assonance (vowel rhymes) and alliteration (consonant rhymes). I’d also like to try to use consonance. Consonance is a cool way to rhyme words in which every consonantal sound after the accented vowel is the same, but the accented vowel itself is different. For example: willow, shallow; hill, call. So let’s get to it. Here's the chorus:
i'm cookies for you!
absolutely anise!
positively peppernutty pfeffernüsse!
we're toffees, we two.
simply speculatius!
manifestly mandelplaettchen, me and you!
yes, cookies for you!
truly tortelletty!
unquestionably coconutty macaroons.
we're brownies, to boot!
lovely ladyfingers!
quite a pair of quadratinis, me and you!
You'll notice that I've played with the words a little. Where I needed an extra syllable I turned nouns into adjectives, as in "coconutty", "peppernutty", and "tortelletty". I think the line "unquestionably coconutty" is a bit wordy. I'll have to see if there are some other possibilities there. But for now I have to pause. We've written enough to get us started, but now I have to step back and consider the form of the song before I can continue with the lyrics. More on that in the next post!