Week 18: The Allure of Śmigły-Rydz

My great grandmother had a German Shepherd by the name of Śmigły-Rydz. The dog was shipped from Germany to Manatí, Puerto Rico, already trained and ready to be a helper in her house. The dog was named after a prominent Polish politician and army leader, who was also a painter and poet. When my mother told me this story, I found it to be a curious tidbit of familial folklore. Nothing more.

But as I ruminated on the story, a German Shepherd arriving to a Caribbean town, a dog the color of shadow already trained, a sense of duty ringing his eyes, and with a name that inspired authority, the image intrigued me. I especially felt genuine mirth from simply saying the name Smigly-Rydz. So much so that it brought a more salient point to the forefront of mind as it relates to writing craft.

Smigly-Rydz, the name that sounds like running through a sprinkler in the middle of July. The name that sounds like shimmying to the prospect of delicious food. The name that tells the story of a dog far from home, arriving with a unique purpose. Or maybe the name is one of a mythical creature that an explorer would encounter in the woods--enchanted woods and Smigly-Rydz leads the protagonist to safety or sorrow, depending on the tone of the story.

Smigly-Rydz: consonants buttressing singular vowel sounds, a name with two uses of "y," both containing different sounds, hyphenate that sounds like other things:

Smuggling Ritz

Sniffling Rizz

Smugly Rise

And I could keep going, as each phrase contains its own meaning and universe, but I won't bore you with granular matters.

Words have a music to them that is singular. In no other area of art or creative expression can we find the same kind of rhythm and music that is present in words. The simple recitation of Smigly-Rydz (go ahead, say it), inspires a joy and sense of fun that reminded me of why we write in the first place. We write to hear certain phrases or to bring a character's voice to life. We write to hear syllabic cadence create movement in stanzas.

We write to bring truth and there are few purer truths than that found in the music of words.

Try reading a sonnet today to hear the musicality of words. Here's a link to 11 contemporary poets reading their modern sonnets: https://daily.jstor.org/sonnets-by-11-contemporary-poets/