We’re fascinated by secrets. From the whispered password that opens a hidden door to the complex algorithms that protect our digital lives, the art of concealing information—cryptography—has always held a certain mystique. But what if a secret code wasn’t hidden in a jumble of random letters or numbers, but in the very rhythm and sound of language itself? What if the key to a cipher was a poem, and the lock was an understanding of phonetics?
This isn’t about the Enigma machine or blockchain technology. Instead, we’re diving into a thought experiment at the intersection of linguistics and espionage: using poetic devices like alliteration and assonance as a simple, elegant form of steganography.
Before we build our cipher, let’s tune our ears to the building blocks we’ll be using. Most of us learned about alliteration and assonance in English class, but let’s revisit them from a linguistic perspective.
These devices are the heart of poetry and prose, creating rhythm and musicality. But for our purposes, they are also the secret signs that point to a hidden message.
Let’s propose a hypothetical system: the Bard’s Cipher. Unlike traditional ciphers where a key might be a word (like “LEMON”) or a number, the key in the Bard’s Cipher is a set of rules based on phonetic patterns.
The sender and receiver must agree on this key beforehand. It could be something as simple or as complex as they like. For our example, let’s establish the following two-part key:
The Key:
Any line that doesn’t meet these specific criteria is simply filler, designed to make the text look natural and conceal the lines that do contain information. The magic of this system is that the resulting message doesn’t look like code at all. It just looks like a paragraph of (perhaps slightly over-written) text. This is a form of steganography—the practice of hiding a message within another, seemingly innocuous message.
Now, let’s put the Bard’s Cipher into action. Imagine we need to send the secret message “SEND HELP” to our fellow agent, who knows our two-part key. We need to craft a short piece of text where specific lines will yield these letters when decoded.
Here’s a message we could write:
It was a strange morning at the docks. Silent snakes slithered slowly; I saw one by the crates. Big boats bobbed endlessly on the water, their horns groaning a low note. An announcement was made, saying they made a name for themselves by being punctual. Dreadful dragons did damage to the pier last year, according to local legend. A great day had finally come for repairs. Fierce fish fought eagerly against the lines of the fishermen. They claimed the main game lingered for hours. Pretty parrots prattled perpetually from the rooftops of the warehouses, adding to the general noise. It was all too much.
To an outsider, this is just a descriptive, if slightly purple, paragraph. But to our recipient, it’s a treasure map. Let’s decode it using our key:
As you can see, even a simple message requires careful, deliberate construction. Our decoded message, after some on-the-fly author corrections, is: S-E-N-D H-E-L-P.
While you probably shouldn’t use the Bard’s Cipher to protect your bank account details, it’s a fascinating concept with a unique set of pros and cons.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
The Bard’s Cipher is, ultimately, a playful thought experiment. It reminds us that structure and information can be hidden in the most unexpected places. It pushes us to see language not just as a tool for communication, but as a layered system of sounds, rhythms, and patterns.
So the next time you read a poem or listen to a well-crafted speech, pay attention to the music of the words. Listen for the subtle chains of alliteration and the echoes of assonance. There might not be a secret message hidden within, but you’ll be appreciating the deep, intricate, and beautiful code that is human language.
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