Feet of Clay

[Dave Smith]

Sheep

[Nerelie Teese]

Hi Everyone

Thanks for the lovely comments and technical advice on Feet of Clay. I appreciated your thoughtful feedback Zondrae and the conversation this initiated. This certainly is a great learning forum.

I've always thought the term Feet of Clay referred to someone who'd been put on a pedestal (metaphorically) and was then found not to be as admirable as originally thought. I'm not always 100% right though

Cheers Nerelie

[Bob Pacey]

"Nerelie everything seems to point to a meaning of " An underlying weakness ' Or " Not as strong as first thought"


Still It fits the bill for your poem

Well Done Bob

[Neville Briggs]

I reckon you are 100% right Nerelie.
There are mixed receptions when there is reference to the Bible, but it is amazing what a large body of sayings that we use in everyday speech come from that source.
" Feet of clay " refers to the biblical Book of Daniel where the King of Babylon, Nebuchandezzar, has a vision in which he sees a great statue with a head of gold, chest of silver , feet of clay, hips of bronze, legs of iron and feet made of iron mixed with clay. As you have said Nerelie, a metaphor, a figure on a pedestal, which stood for the decline of the great imperial powers of the world.

A bloke named David Crystal has published a book devoted to explaining all the common sayings derived from the Bible. It's an interesting reference book but terribly tedious to read through.

[Zondrae]

G'day Neville,

Sorry to pinch the thread for a sec..
Someone, knowing I go to church, gave me a translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The first twenty, or so, pages were riviting. Then it got so boring I have never been able to finish it. I left the book mark in place in case I ever think I'll try again. (Life is too short!).

Back to this thread. I understood the meaning of 'feet of clay' was - an idol who proved to be not worthy of admiration.

[Leonie]

... and an apt description for Ned too, feet of clay indeed.

[Dave Smith]

I’m with you Leonie; one of our favourite songs is about a bloke that pinches sheep.
“and he sang as he shoved that Jumbuk in his tucker bag.” go figure.

TTFN

[r.magnay]

.....ah, that would be Andy you refer to...."Andy sang, Andy watched Andy waited for....." Yeah, yeah I know....I'll leave now.....

[Dave Smith]

Good one Ross

TTFN

[Glenny Palmer]

'As far as I know it's a type of near rhyme or slant rhyme , perhaps you could call it assonance'

Go to your room Neville! (that's a bit severe, sorry luv).....

Newbies often tell me that they 'have read' my tutorial. tch tch. Neville, can you help me out here....'tutorial'... thesaurus description please. I think it'll say something along the lines of repeatedly reading aka studying...a bit at a time...?

Anyway this is all in there. Ta Zondrae...you save me so much time. Your critique is correct IMO. Apart from technicalities, you will see an example of singular/plural rhyme in 'Unstrained', that when corrected conveys so much more 'power'.

'Assonance':
In the song 'Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue'.
'I'll be sad when you're goneI'll just cry all night long....'
'gone' & long' are assonance...not rhyme.

Hellooo Nerelie. Great to see you posting on here. Sing out next time you see me in Coles & we'll have a cuppa & a chat?

Cheeers
Glenny Palmer