{"id":3639,"date":"2012-06-14T12:03:38","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T16:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/?p=3638"},"modified":"2019-08-30T16:44:55","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T16:44:55","slug":"gre-vocab-in-the-shakespearean-hokey-pokey-a-wilde-release-from-heavens-yoke-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/gre-vocab-in-the-shakespearean-hokey-pokey-a-wilde-release-from-heavens-yoke-2\/","title":{"rendered":"GRE Vocab in “The Shakespearean Hokey Pokey”: A Wilde Release From Heaven’s Yoke"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following, by Jeff Brechlin, is the winning entry from a Washington Post Style Invitational contest that asked readers to submit “instructions” for something in the style of a famous person.<\/p>\n

Here is Shakespeare’s Hokey Pokey.<\/p>\n

\"Hokey<\/p>\n

For the benefit of our international students, the “Hokey Pokey” is a silly dance for children that goes something like this:<\/p>\n

\n

You put your [right leg] in,
\nYou put your [right leg] out;
\nYou put your [right leg] in,
\nAnd you shake it all about.
\nYou do the hokey pokey,
\nAnd you turn yourself around.
\nThat’s what it’s all about!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A different part of the body is referenced in each verse (so, the song can go on for kind of a long time).<\/p>\n

\"Shakespeare\"The Shakespearean version contains some antiquated words that wouldn’t appear on the GRE (“anon” means soon, quickly<\/i>), but also some very excellent GRE words:<\/p>\n

Lithe<\/a> – bending readily; pliant; limber; supple; flexible: the lithe body of a ballerina<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Wanton<\/a> – Done, shown, used, etc., maliciously or unjustifiably (a wanton attack; wanton cruelty); without regard for what is right, just, humane, etc.; careless; reckless; sexually lawless or unrestrained (wanton lust); extravagantly or excessively luxurious (Kanye West’s Tweets about how fur pillows are actually hard to sleep on<\/a> might indicate a wanton lifestyle). Basically, wanton<\/i> can mean lacking restraint in a number of ways.<\/p>\n

Yoke<\/a> – a device for joining together a pair of draft animals, especially oxen, usually consisting of a crosspiece with two bow-shaped pieces, each enclosing the head of an animal; a frame fitting the neck and shoulders of a person, for carrying a pair of buckets or the like, one at each end; an agency of oppression, subjection, servitude, etc.<\/p>\n

Here’s a yoke pictured on Wikipedia:<\/p>\n

\"Yokes\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So, as a metaphor, you could talk about the “yoke” of oppression. Some religious people cite a quote from the Bible about marriage referring to two people being “equally yoked.”<\/p>\n

If sinistral<\/a> looks familiar, well … it means “left.” The reason it looks familiar is because it is the root whence we get sinister<\/a>, which means ominous, evil<\/i> … or “left.” Were the Romans (the word is from Latin) biased against left-handed people? Why, yes. Very much so.<\/p>\n

Dervishes<\/a> are these guys (photo from Wikipedia<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"Dervishes\"<\/p>\n

A Dervish is a Sufi Muslim ascetic. Not all dervishes are “whirling dervishes” — the “whirling” comes from a ceremony intended to help followers reach religious ecstasy.<\/p>\n

Verily<\/a> is an old-fashioned word that no one says anymore, but its root should look familiar! Verily<\/i> just means really, actually<\/i>, from the root ver<\/i> for truth<\/i>. This root appears in common words like verify<\/i> and in GRE-likely words such as veracious<\/a>, verity<\/a>, and verisimilar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I hope this post has augmented your lucubration! Verily, I say, ’tis what it’s all about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following, by Jeff Brechlin, is the winning entry from a Washington Post Style Invitational contest that asked readers to submit “instructions” for something in the style of a famous person. Here is Shakespeare’s Hokey Pokey. For the benefit of our international students, the “Hokey Pokey” is a silly dance for children that goes something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-3639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gre-strategies","category-vocabulary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7091,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3639\/revisions\/7091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3639"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}