Professor Allsopp

Barbados loses another literary great. Often these icons are easily misunderstood because of the watch eyes to detail and therefore their preponderance of corrections. I should be the last to check other people’s mistake since I often write and type you instead of your and recently I even used week instead of weak. I know the difference but it happens, in fact I even remember using no when I meant know, it can be that bad. I saw our newspaper repeatedly using centre to describe someone standing in the middle. It is things like this that are Dr. Allsopp’s forte.  I will surely miss his contributions.

 

 

A

Love

Legacy

Selfless

Our

Passionate

Professor

 

Professor Allsopp

 

Phrasings colloquial were accepted he said

Rhythmic intonations in Bajan instead

Of the stiff upper lip of the Mother land

Foreign garble only they should understand

Every meeting with Dr. Richard Allsopp was a literary adventure

Such linguistic gymnastics, a real scholastic quencher

Simple sounds twisted with new meanings to portray

“Oh” and “Uh” made endless by how we choose to say

Repeated words said consecutively 

Accentuated in meaning like “hard hard hard” see?

Lexicography became his passion and through his will

Linguistics took on a new and dominant place on the hill

Some time ago while turning my car I reversed in his driveway

Only to hear the towering figure come out to say

“Put in more lock” many had made this mishap their choice

People never expected his kind, mannerly demeanor, his calming voice

 

A Tribute to Professor Richard Allsopp

Thanks for your guidance and Legacy

Khaidji

BajanPoetry.com

 

 

Loss is irreplaceable but thankfully

Every day he built us a legacy

Great are our memories but more precious still

Are the guidelines he gave with his iron will

Celebrate his life though for some time we’ll mourn

You must remember his legacy and not be forlorn

 

 



Posted by Khaidji at 5 Jun 2009, 10:29 AM
Categories: Tributes

Previous Post
Next Post

 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this post
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
  • No comments exist for this post.
Leave a comment

We welcome your comments and will not share your information. We reserve the right to publish any comment which we moderate. During moderation some typo may be corrected but we do not deliberate attempt to edit your comments. Note lots of typos will be seen in the raw poetry and we invite you to draw them to our attention

Submitted comments are subject to moderation before being displayed.

 Name (required)

 Email (will not be published) (required)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.