Tripping on the Light Fantastic
Moderator:Metacrock
- Bettawoman
- Posts:122
- Joined:Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:46 pm
Meaning
To dance, especially in an imaginative or 'fantastic' manner.
Origin:
trip the light fantastic. This apparently obscure expression originates from the works of John Milton. In the masque Comus, 1637, he used the lines:
Come, knit hands, and beat the ground,
In a light fantastic round.
By 'trip', Milton didn't mean 'catch one's feet and stumble'. The word had long been used to mean 'dance nimbly'. Chaucer used it that way as early as 1386, in The Miller's Tale:
In twenty manere koude he trippe and daunce. (In twenty ways could he trip and dance.)
Clearly, Milton was referring to dancing. He must have liked the imagery, as he used it again in the poem L'Allegro, 1645:
Sport that wrinkled Care derives,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it as you go
On the light fantastic toe.
The 'light fantastic toe' was the form that was used when the phrase first circulated, as in this extract from The Times, November 1803:
"A splendid ball was also given; where the CONSUL himself tripped it on the light fantastic toe."
To dance, especially in an imaginative or 'fantastic' manner.
Origin:
trip the light fantastic. This apparently obscure expression originates from the works of John Milton. In the masque Comus, 1637, he used the lines:
Come, knit hands, and beat the ground,
In a light fantastic round.
By 'trip', Milton didn't mean 'catch one's feet and stumble'. The word had long been used to mean 'dance nimbly'. Chaucer used it that way as early as 1386, in The Miller's Tale:
In twenty manere koude he trippe and daunce. (In twenty ways could he trip and dance.)
Clearly, Milton was referring to dancing. He must have liked the imagery, as he used it again in the poem L'Allegro, 1645:
Sport that wrinkled Care derives,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it as you go
On the light fantastic toe.
The 'light fantastic toe' was the form that was used when the phrase first circulated, as in this extract from The Times, November 1803:
"A splendid ball was also given; where the CONSUL himself tripped it on the light fantastic toe."
Time taken to breathe is time taken for peace.
- Bettawoman
- Posts:122
- Joined:Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:46 pm
Re: Tripping on the Light Fantastic
Perhaps a place to trip forward with words, and, though stumbling, recover and fall forward again with panache and purpose. Bring it, one and all, a place where fingers nimble on the keyboard, capture and bring forth words and images, meaning nothing and meaning everything. A dance of words, prancing and preening, or downright funky and unseemly.
Poetry
or lack there of
Samhadhi is the goal
where it comes from
no one knows
inspiration
or gall
of a gull
in flight over
the dark ocean night
RELAX! RELAX! RELAX -- DAMMIT!
Poetry
or lack there of
Samhadhi is the goal
where it comes from
no one knows
inspiration
or gall
of a gull
in flight over
the dark ocean night
RELAX! RELAX! RELAX -- DAMMIT!
Time taken to breathe is time taken for peace.
Re: Tripping on the Light Fantastic
LOL great postBettawoman wrote:Perhaps a place to trip forward with words, and, though stumbling, recover and fall forward again with panache and purpose. Bring it, one and all, a place where fingers nimble on the keyboard, capture and bring forth words and images, meaning nothing and meaning everything. A dance of words, prancing and preening, or downright funky and unseemly.
Poetry
or lack there of
Samhadhi is the goal
where it comes from
no one knows
inspiration
or gall
of a gull
in flight over
the dark ocean night
RELAX! RELAX! RELAX -- DAMMIT!
Have Theology, Will argue: wire Metacrock
Buy My book: The Trace of God: Warrant for belief
Buy My book: The Trace of God: Warrant for belief
Re: Tripping on the Light Fantastic
I remember coming across a book form the 1940's in a library once, the title was "YOU MUST RELAX!"Bettawoman wrote:Perhaps a place to trip forward with words, and, though stumbling, recover and fall forward again with panache and purpose. Bring it, one and all, a place where fingers nimble on the keyboard, capture and bring forth words and images, meaning nothing and meaning everything. A dance of words, prancing and preening, or downright funky and unseemly.
Poetry
or lack there of
Samhadhi is the goal
where it comes from
no one knows
inspiration
or gall
of a gull
in flight over
the dark ocean night
RELAX! RELAX! RELAX -- DAMMIT!
Re: Tripping on the Light Fantastic
lolJim B. wrote:I remember coming across a book form the 1940's in a library once, the title was "YOU MUST RELAX!"Bettawoman wrote:Perhaps a place to trip forward with words, and, though stumbling, recover and fall forward again with panache and purpose. Bring it, one and all, a place where fingers nimble on the keyboard, capture and bring forth words and images, meaning nothing and meaning everything. A dance of words, prancing and preening, or downright funky and unseemly.
Poetry
or lack there of
Samhadhi is the goal
where it comes from
no one knows
inspiration
or gall
of a gull
in flight over
the dark ocean night
RELAX! RELAX! RELAX -- DAMMIT!
Have Theology, Will argue: wire Metacrock
Buy My book: The Trace of God: Warrant for belief
Buy My book: The Trace of God: Warrant for belief
- Bettawoman
- Posts:122
- Joined:Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:46 pm
Re: Tripping on the Light Fantastic
It's trooooooo! Thou must relax...try real real hard. It will feel really really good! You owe humanity that. SERIOUSLY!Metacrock wrote:lolJim B. wrote:I remember coming across a book form the 1940's in a library once, the title was "YOU MUST RELAX!"Bettawoman wrote:Perhaps a place to trip forward with words, and, though stumbling, recover and fall forward again with panache and purpose. Bring it, one and all, a place where fingers nimble on the keyboard, capture and bring forth words and images, meaning nothing and meaning everything. A dance of words, prancing and preening, or downright funky and unseemly.
Poetry
or lack there of
Samhadhi is the goal
where it comes from
no one knows
inspiration
or gall
of a gull
in flight over
the dark ocean night
RELAX! RELAX! RELAX -- DAMMIT!
Time taken to breathe is time taken for peace.
- Bettawoman
- Posts:122
- Joined:Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:46 pm
Re: Tripping on the Light Fantastic
It's trooooooo! Thou must relax...try real real hard. It will feel really really good! You owe humanity that. SERIOUSLY!Metacrock wrote:lolJim B. wrote:I remember coming across a book form the 1940's in a library once, the title was "YOU MUST RELAX!"Bettawoman wrote:Perhaps a place to trip forward with words, and, though stumbling, recover and fall forward again with panache and purpose. Bring it, one and all, a place where fingers nimble on the keyboard, capture and bring forth words and images, meaning nothing and meaning everything. A dance of words, prancing and preening, or downright funky and unseemly.
Poetry
or lack there of
Samhadhi is the goal
where it comes from
no one knows
inspiration
or gall
of a gull
in flight over
the dark ocean night
RELAX! RELAX! RELAX -- DAMMIT!
Time taken to breathe is time taken for peace.
- Bettawoman
- Posts:122
- Joined:Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:46 pm
Re: Tripping on the Light Fantastic
I haven't posted any art for a while. This one I sold and still miss. Enjoy, trip out!
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Time taken to breathe is time taken for peace.
- Bettawoman
- Posts:122
- Joined:Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:46 pm
Re: Tripping on the Light Fantastic
And this is a friend tripping out and kicking up some joy!
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Time taken to breathe is time taken for peace.
Re: Tripping on the Light Fantastic
coolBettawoman wrote:I haven't posted any art for a while. This one I sold and still miss. Enjoy, trip out!
Have Theology, Will argue: wire Metacrock
Buy My book: The Trace of God: Warrant for belief
Buy My book: The Trace of God: Warrant for belief