Cadaeic Cadenza

Cadaeic Cadenza is a 1996 short story by Mike Keith. It is an example of constrained writing, a book with restrictions on how it can be written. It is also one of the most prodigious examples of piphilology.

Cadaeic Cadenza has perhaps the harshest limitations on the exact words that can be used, but also results in uncommon sounding language. In addition to the main restriction, the author attempts to mimic portions, or entire works, of different types and pieces of literature (The Raven, Jabberwocky, the lyrics of Yes, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Rubaiyat, Hamlet, and Carl Sandburg's Grass) in story, structure, and rhyme.

The Limitations

When the number of letters in each word is written out they form the first 3835 digits of pi.

One/A/Poem/A/Raven/Midnights/so/dreary,/tired/and/weary,

3.1415926535

While in this example each word is the same number of letters as the next digit of pi (and ten letters for the digit 0), some sections use words of more than ten letters as a one followed by another digit:

And fear overcame my being – the fear of "fovermore".

3482534211

where 11 represents two consecutive digit "1"s in pi.

Taking "A" as 1, "B" as 2, "C" as 3, etc., the name of the piece itself is based on pi, as "Cadaeic" is the first 7 digits of pi, when rounded.

C a d a e i c
3.1 4 1 5 9 3

The first part of Cadaeic Cadenza is slightly changed from an earlier version, "Near A Raven", which was a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven".

Midnights so dreary, tired and weary,

Silently pondering volumes extolling all by-now obsolete lore.
During my rather long nap - the weirdest tap!
An ominous vibrating sound disturbing my chamber's antedoor.

"This", I whispered quietly, "I ignore".
—Mike Keith , First verse of Near a Raven