Original Word Games by David Parlett

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TRYPO

Reconstruct a poem from its alphabetical elements

Players Any number   Type Deductive-constructive   Equipment Pencil & paper

Trypo (originally called Constructapo) is one of several variations of mine on the well-known Dictionary Game. (Another is Suspensions.) It requires preparation in advance of the playing session. Ideally, each player should come equipped with material to work on, as the only alternative is to do it all yourself.

All you need do in advance is take a stanza of poetry - the obscurer, the better  - and rewrite all its constituent words in alphabetical order. A suitable length is about 30 words. At each round of play, one player reads out their alphabetical list and everyone copies it down. The winner is the first player to reconstruct the stanza accurately - or, if previously agreed, to produce a reasonable reconstruction of it, complete with rhymes where appropriate. See what you can make of this short and easy one:

Dunnit already? Then click the cheetah image to speed forwards to the right answer:

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