ABSTRACT

It’s a strange little conundrum: a whole life in ten short lines. A whole life – but not a whole life story, not really. That is the humour of the thing; it leaves you guessing, even after you’ve worked out that the days don’t have to be in the same week or even the same year. Who was this Solomon Grundy? Where did he live? What did he do? What was the illness that carried him off? Who was sad when he met his end? Was he really young when he died or did he confound the expectation created in the rhyme and actually live to a ripe old age? It’s teasing and tantalizing.