Duck and Weave! Bob and Wheel!

Put em up or POW! I'll pop ya!

Bob and wheel. 

Can’t you just see Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, or some cage fighter known as ‘The Slime’ ducking away in the ring and then bobbing up with a swift uppercut to the jaw? 

Or some Olympian boxer weaving away from an answering blow before he wheels and pops his opponent right in the kisser?

Today you will learn to bob and wheel from the comfort of your seat in front of the computer.

Bob and wheel. 

So gritty, so evocative, so masculine.

So 14th century poetry.

You heard correctly. It is a poetry device.

Bob- two short words followed by the

Wheel- 4 lines packed with alliteration so beloved by The Prude, and with the ‘abab’

rhyme scheme so beloved by symmetry lovers.

Here is an example from ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, so beloved by high school teachers everywhere:

(bob)
full clean.
(wheel)
Great wonder of the knight
Folk had in hall, I ween,
Full fierce he was to sight,
And over all bright green. (SGGK lines 146-150)

Don’t worry that the bob seems to be a partial sentence. It is. 

It links a longer alliterative passage that precedes it (which we’ll ignore) with the wheel (which we won’t).

Let’s do this together.

We want to come up with 2 strong words that link some exciting preceding passage,

and follow with four lines full of repeated initial sounds (alliteration).

The Prude will initiate the bob and choose the wheel sound we’ll alliterate.

Your job is to fill in the final, rhyming words . 

Remember- the 1st line has to rhyme with the 3rd line and the 2nd line must rhyme with the 4th.

Ready?

Let’s bob and wheel!

(bob) 

she gasped,

(wheel) 

Your brother has a black _____?

your nose is broke to the______?

You boys could make me _________!

Just wait till Big Daddy comes _________!

See! You too can write 14th century poetry! Bet you never heard 

that kind of quality come from Muhammad Ali!