Roundabout

Poet Alastair Reid arranged unusual words into “garlands,” rings that end where they began:

What is a Tingle-Airey? A tingle-airey is a hand organ, usually played on the street by the turning of a handle, and often decorated with mother-of-pearl or piddock shells. What are Piddocks? Piddocks are little mollusks which bore holes in rocks and wood, or in the breastsummers of buildings. What is a Breastsummer? A breastsummer is a great beam supporting the weight of a wall, and sometimes of a gazebo above. What is a Gazebo? A gazebo is a round balcony with large windows looking out on a view, often of ornamental gardens and cotoneasters. What is a Cotoneaster? A cotoneaster is a kind of flowering shrub, a favorite of mumruffins. What is a Mumruffin? A mumruffin is a long-tailed tit which often visits bird tables in winter for its share of pobbies. What are Pobbies? Pobbies are small pieces of bread thrumbled up with milk and fed to birds and baby animals. What is Thrumbled? Thrumbled is squashed together. Ants thrumble round a piece of bread, and crowds in streets thrumble round gongoozlers. What is a Gongoozler? A gongoozler is an idle person who is always stopping in the street and staring at a curious object like a tingle-airey.

Once you’ve traversed the list twice or thrice, he says, “you will be able to use them whenever you wish.”