Circular Logic

[psykomakia]

This circular logic is round

As you say, "man, this riddle ain't sound."

Respecting your thoughts I rebound,

Deflecting the critics abound.

May I take all your slings and your darts,

For the beauty of riddling's an art.

Judge not with your mind but your heart

Or this bulletin all falls apart.

But 'fore you give words too much credit,

Quit thinking the meaning's inherent.

Complain, go ahead, you have merit

Suggesting I seek one to edit.

Gone be the verses and quatrains.

Purged are the rhyming campaigns.

Hack even the words this contains.

Kick 'em out, and so little remains.

Now likely you doubt my pretense:

Initially this riddle made sense.

Launch into logicking: whence

Eponymous game I dispense?

[psykomakia]

Okay, so I've rewritten small parts of the poem to add an extra, but hidden, clue on how to solve this puzzle. I hope I haven't lost too much of the original flavor (though the meter's all ****ed up... for a reason).

[psykomakia]

The logic is circular round,

As you say, "this quaint riddle's not sound."

Respectfully, I still rebound,

Deflecting that critics abound.

May I take all the slings and those darts,

For all riddles are beauty--an art.

Judge not with intellect but your heart,

Or hinted message at core falls apart.

But 'fore you're giving words much credit,

Quit thinking said answer's inherent.

Complain, no mercy, you have merit

Suggesting I fix, delete, 'n' edit.

Gone will be the verses and quatrains.

Purged will be the cryptic campaigns.

Hack apart even all words it contains.

Kick 'em out--maybe little remains.

Now go doubt all or part of my pretense:

Initially, this problem'll make sense.

Lastly, solve the question hence:

Enlighten what game I try to dispense.

[psykomakia]

These eight hints get more revealing as you go...

~"this quaint riddle's not sound."

This is not a "normal" riddle. I chose many of the words to simply fit the meter/rhyme scheme or sound good.

~ But 'fore you're giving words much credit,

~ Hack apart even all words it contains.

~ fix, delete

The meanings of the words are not quite as important as in "normal" riddles. The words may hint to what you are supposed to do, but the words should be edited out eventually.

If you're still stuck, this newer version has an added hidden clue. Can you find it? Hint: There are 20 letters in the clue.

The hinted message runs down the "core" of the poem. All lines have an odd number of letters. The middle letters spell the clue.

INITIAL AND CIRCLE POEM

~ Initially, this problem'll make sense.

Cut away the words. "Initial" the poem. Initially it makes sense. Take a look at the first letter of each line. They are all you need to solve the riddle.

~ circular round

"Circular round" and "circle" the poem. Perhaps the initial letters from each line should be written in a big circle? So, twenty letters that form a circle?

Start your circle of letters at the top and move clockwise. T=20.

The numbers in a circle should clue you, finally, to the answer, especially if you've spent any time in a pub.

DARTS

So why not actually clue to the game DARTS in the riddle? I wanted the mechanism for solving it to be the initial letters. Any clue in the riddle risked that someone guessed DARTS without actually figuring out the mechanism at work. So the clues weren't towards the target game (ha! no pun intended) but to the mechanism.

(and yes, the actual answer is even in the original riddle.)

[plainglazed]

mostly just wanting you to know am on the case. am sure there are quite a few others, too. trying to avoid the temptation to look at the HINTs. so...

seems the first letters are important as the last two lines of the rewrite have different first words as the original but still start with the same letters. DART and SLING are contained in the first letters for whatever that may be worth. And that's about all i gotsk. Seems there is some direction within the riddle as to what to do with these letters (and/or otheres) but haven't cracked that if that's the case. One guess from some of the verbage in the riddle and esp. the last line of the original - Knock Out?

[Pickett]

mostly just wanting you to know am on the case. am sure there are quite a few others, too. trying to avoid the temptation to look at the HINTs. so...

seems the first letters are important as the last two lines of the rewrite have different first words as the original but still start with the same letters. DART and SLING are contained in the first letters for whatever that may be worth. And that's about all i gotsk. Seems there is some direction within the riddle as to what to do with these letters (and/or otheres) but haven't cracked that if that's the case. One guess from some of the verbage in the riddle and esp. the last line of the original - Knock Out?

Good initial thoughts!

Knock out and Darts could definitely be related, along with the "logic is circular round" could be the board itself...I too am trying to avoid the temptation of looking at the hints provided...I'll be honest, I looked at the first one, but then when I saw they were all nested in each other (good call psyko), I stopped there...

Edited August 2, 2012 by Pickett

[plainglazed]

Ughh - gave into temptation and checked out the hints. Good one psykomakia. Should have figured it out but am better equipped now to tackle future ones. Headed over to your latest mind teasing offering.