I once had a conversation with
an American who claimed that people from Flanders and the Netherlands used English to speak with each other because their native languages were not mutually intelligible. I was sitting next to a Dutchman whom I knew very well and we were very surprised, but we were unable to convince the American that he was wrong.
From John Le Carre's Smiley's People
They stood side by side in an avenue of beeches and the Superintendent was taller by a head: a young giant of a man, prematurely grizzled, a little pompous perhaps, but with a giant’s gentleness that made him naturally befriending.
Does "with a giant’s gentl...
The poem is in iambic pentameter and employs a feminine ending to the odd lines; but there are a few lines whose rhythm confounds me:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
And —which is more— you’ll be a Man, my son!
What is happening with the me...