Character Poem

The following poem appeared recently in INFOCUS magazine. The original authors were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, MI.

A poll conducted among INFOCUS readers had established "waka" as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters <> though some readers held out resolutely for "norkies."

The text of the poem follows:

  <> !*''#
  ^"$$-
  !*=@$_
  %*<> ~#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,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

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