The Game of Contraries

It was, so far as I know, invented by Dorothy Brady, a friend of my parents — at least, she is who we got it from. The idea was to start with some familiar proverb and find another that contradicted it:

Look before you leap.

and

He who hesitates is lost.

Or

Out of sight is out of mind

and

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence

I have now invented a variant — do it with a pair of poems, ideally by the same author. I started with two by Edna St Vincent Millay, one of my favorite poets:

OH, THINK not I am faithful to a vow!
Faithless am I save to love’s self alone.
Were you not lovely I would leave you now
After the feet of beauty fly my own.
...
    (Sonnet from A Few Figs From Thistles)

And

…
So am I caught that when I say, “Not fair,”
‘Tis but as if I said, “Not here—not there
Not risen—not writing letters.” Well I know
What is this beauty men are babbling of;
I wonder only why they prize it so.
    (Love Is Not Blind. I See With Single Eye)

Another pair by another of my favorite poets:

…
Wherefore the more ye be holpen and stayed,
Stayed by a friend in the hour of toil,
Sing the heretical song I have made–
His be the labour, and yours be the spoil.
Win by his aid, and the aid disown–
He travels the fastest who travels alone.
    (Rudyard Kipling The Winners)

And

One man in a thousand, Solomon says.
Will stick more close than a brother.
And it’s worth while seeking him half your days
If you find him before the other.
...
(Rudyard Kipling The Thousandth Man)

To do it as a game, one person offers a saying and it is up to the other to provide a contrary saying. If you want to score it, the second person gets a point for providing a contrary, the first gets a point if the second fails to come up with one and the first has one. It could be done with more people, where they take turns proposing, with the point going to whomever finds a contrary first.

We were never that organized. Think of it as a way to pass the time on a long car trip.

Here are two sayings for you to find contraries for:

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

I thought of offering My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun as a challenge poem but I couldn’t find a contrary in the Sonnets; apparently Shakespeare didn’t write hyperbolic love poetry in his own voice, only in the voices of his characters, which doesn’t count. Finding a contrary by another poet should be easy enough — that, after all, is the point of the poem.

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