We are told that the poem contains nine clues. But, which nine clues? That is the $64,000 question…
There are many possibilities for the 9 Clues, let’s take a look at some of the more likely candidates:
From Start to Finish (Begin to Cease/End)
- BEGIN: Where warm waters halt
- Canyon down, too far to walk
- Put in below, Home of Brown
- No place for the meek
- End is ever drawing nigh
- No paddle up your creek
- Heavy loads, water high
- Blaze
- Quickly down: CEASE
So, tell me… Which clues exactly are the 9 Clues?
Each Clue is a Sentence:
- Stanza 1
- Warm waters, canyon, walk
- Home of Brown
- Meek, nigh, no paddle creek, loads
- The blaze, tarry scant, marvel gaze
- Leave my trove
- Answers, tired, weak
- Hear me, worth the cold
- Brave, in the wood, title
There are nine sentences in the poem - and nine clues. Coincidence??? It would make perfect sense if each sentence is a clue. And, this would go a long way in explaining the poem’s rather odd punctuation. Like that semi-colon for instance. Not to mention all those commas serving no purpose but to lower the sentence-count.
Starting from the top of the poem version of the 9 Clues:
- Gone alone in there
- Keep my secret
- Where warm waters halt
- Home of Brown
- No place for the meek
- No paddle up your creek
- Find the blaze
- Tarry scant with marvel gaze
- Cold brave in the wood
Which 9 are the 9 Clues?
- Ignore all the lines that are about him, only focus on the lines that tell you to do something.
- Ignore all the lines that tell you to do something and focus on the lines that are about him and the treasure.
- Ignore the past and future tense, focus on the present-tense commands.
- Vice-versa.
- Focus on directional commands (down, up, etc...).
- Some individual clues may be made up of several separate clues, spread throughout the poem.
Other Ideas...:
If the first option isn’t correct, then it’s a mighty big coincidence that there just so happen to be 9 distinct clues between Begin and Cease.
But, not just that, all nine of those clues are in the paragraphs where the author is telling ‘you’ to do something. All the paragraphs that talk about what the author did in the past are clues that help you know what to do in the present.
It fits just a bit too nicely to be wrong. So, until we hear a better option, we’re going to focus on variations of the first (not excluding anything, of course).
The Verdict:
THE NINE CLUES
The ‘Begin at WWWH’ interpretation of Fenn’s clues:
- WWWH
- Take it in the canyon down, not far
- Put in below the home of Brown
- Drawing nigh
- Creek
- The blaze
- Tarry scant with marvel gaze
- Peace
- In the wood
The first stanza might be rather important version:
- Alone
- New & Old
- Warm water, canyon
- Home of Brown
- Meek/Creek/Nigh
- Wise at The blaze
- Look quickly down
- Tarry scant
- Hear me all and listen good
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