Waka Waka Bang Splat! The World's First Internet Special-Characters Poem
Waka Waka Bang Splat! The World’s First Internet Special-Characters Poem
The following poem appeared in the May/June 1990 issue of Infocus magazine and has since been floating around the Internet. The original authors were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
A poll conducted among Infocus readers had established “waka” as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters < and >, though some readers held out resolutely for “norkies.”
< > ! * ' ' #
^ " ` $ $ -
! * = @ $ _
% * < > ~ # 4
& [ ] . . /
| { , , SYSTEM HALTED
The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit:
< > ! * ' ' #
^ " ` $ $ -
Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash, ! * = @ $ _
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score, % * < > ~ # 4
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four, & [ ] . . /
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash, | { , , SYSTEM HALTED
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.
via poetry.about.com
Waka Waka What ??