FF Word of the Day: HALT

[Jenny]

The first two stanzas of Forrest Fenn's Poem:

As I have gone alone in there
And with my treasures bold,
I can keep my secret where,
and hint of riches new and old.

Begin it where warm waters halt
And take it in the canyon down,
Not far, but too far to walk.
Put in below the home of Brown.


As you can see Halt and Walk are two words which don't follow the rhyming theme of the poem. Why was Forrest so determined to use Halt (or walk). It seems to me definitions would play a major part for his reasoning. What is so important about it? What do you think?


Definition of HALT

verb: halt; 3rd person present: halts; past tense: halted; past participle: halted; gerund or present participle: halting
1.
bring or come to an abrupt stop.
"there is growing pressure to halt the bloodshed"
synonyms: stop, come to a halt, come to a stop, come to a standstill; More
antonyms: start, go, continue
used as a military command to bring marching soldiers to a stop.
"company, halt!"


noun: halt; plural noun: halts
1.
a suspension of movement or activity, typically a temporary one.
"a halt in production"
synonyms: stop, standstill More

[mikemarcum879]

Aug 17, 2018 9:50:55 GMT -5 Jenny said:

The first two stanzas of Forrest Fenn's Poem:

As I have gone alone in there
And with my treasures bold,
I can keep my secret where,
and hint of riches new and old.

Begin it where warm waters halt
And take it in the canyon down,
Not far, but too far to walk.
Put in below the home of Brown.


As you can see Halt and Walk are two words which don't follow the rhyming theme of the poem. Why was Forrest so determined to use Halt (or walk). It seems to me definitions would play a major part for his reasoning. What is so important about it? What do you think?


Definition of HALT

verb: halt; 3rd person present: halts; past tense: halted; past participle: halted; gerund or present participle: halting
1.
bring or come to an abrupt stop.
"there is growing pressure to halt the bloodshed"
synonyms: stop, come to a halt, come to a stop, come to a standstill; More
antonyms: start, go, continue
used as a military command to bring marching soldiers to a stop.
"company, halt!"


noun: halt; plural noun: halts
1.
a suspension of movement or activity, typically a temporary one.
"a halt in production"
synonyms: stop, standstill More

Halt and walk does rhyme in poetry
Imo.

[mikemarcum879]

Aug 17, 2018 10:12:31 GMT -5 mikemarcum879 said:

Aug 17, 2018 9:50:55 GMT -5 Jenny said:

The first two stanzas of Forrest Fenn's Poem:

As I have gone alone in there
And with my treasures bold,
I can keep my secret where,
and hint of riches new and old.

Begin it where warm waters halt
And take it in the canyon down,
Not far, but too far to walk.
Put in below the home of Brown.


As you can see Halt and Walk are two words which don't follow the rhyming theme of the poem. Why was Forrest so determined to use Halt (or walk). It seems to me definitions would play a major part for his reasoning. What is so important about it? What do you think?


Definition of HALT

verb: halt; 3rd person present: halts; past tense: halted; past participle: halted; gerund or present participle: halting
1.
bring or come to an abrupt stop.
"there is growing pressure to halt the bloodshed"
synonyms: stop, come to a halt, come to a stop, come to a standstill; More
antonyms: start, go, continue
used as a military command to bring marching soldiers to a stop.
"company, halt!"


noun: halt; plural noun: halts
1.
a suspension of movement or activity, typically a temporary one.
"a halt in production"
synonyms: stop, standstill More

Halt and walk does rhyme in poetry
Imo.

Begin it www halt the only other word to use is walk because no other word will fit in the poem that will make any sense.

[rodan]

Hey Forrest, did you ever consider waltz instead of walk?

[zaphod73491]

Hi Jenny/All: Forrest was clearly aware that halt and walk don't rhyme, but he stuck with the pair anyway. A relevant "Forrest Gets Mail" exchange from 2/8/2017:

Q: "Is there is (sic) specific reason that halt and walk are the only words that do not follow the rhyme scheme?"

A: "Yes, I was limited in my ability."

People have proposed that instead of halt he could have used balk; but if balk would have worked equally well, Forrest would have used it. So that tells me balk does NOT work.

Halt and stop can be synonyms, but I believe it is the subtle difference between the two that matters. Jenny, I think the definition most relevant to how Forrest is using "halt" is the first one you have under noun, with my emphasis added: "A suspension of movement or activity, TYPICALLY A TEMPORARY ONE."

Geysers halt. And they do so in three different ways.