Brainstorming

One method that I commonly use is Brainstorming, also known as the Shotgun Approach, where we just try every idea that comes to mind. Here are some of my crazy ideas: 

My first thought was that maybe there was something in a newspaper reference, one by a columnist—“seek the columns.” After searching for a while, I realized that this would have to be multiple articles (columns) because the plural is used, which makes no sense in context. So I tossed the idea. Fail. 

Next I focused on the columns in a table or page of text (i.e., columns versus rows). It occurred to me that the numbers 1442 and 1881 might refer to columns in the poem, revealing a secret message. There are eight digits in the two numbers and eight letters in the word backward. Because so many digits in 1442 and 1881 are repeated, I assumed they must refer to a column offset rather than an actual column. I started with the first line of the poem.

Beneath two countries

The first offset, 1, gives us the letter B. The next, offset from that location, 4, gives us the letter A. The next offset, another 4, gives us (skipping blanks) the letter W. And the fourth offset gives us the letter C. These are four letters from the word backward, out of order, of course. But maybe this is why the lines in the poem are out of order, to hint at an anagram in the columns of the poem. Maybe. I went to the next line in the poem and applied the next number, 1881. 

As the road curves

The next offsets give us a second A and a D, both letters we’re looking for. At this point we’re only missing a K and an R from the word backward. What are the odds of that?! However, at this point we’ve run out of letters in our current line, and the next line doesn’t help. 

In a rectangular plot

In the next line, the next numbers, 8 and 1, would give us the letters A and N, which are not what we’re looking for. The problem is, there are only two K’s in the whole poem and there’s no reasonable way to get there. Grudgingly, I tossed this idea too. It would have been so cool. Fail. 

Next, I looked for a literary reference as Byron has done in other puzzles (see the Charleston, Roanoke Island, and Houston analyses at thesecret.pbworks.com), one involving columns. I searched for classic novels that include both references to “columns” and “backward.” I was thrilled to find a singular reference to each word in neighboring paragraphs in the book Treasure Island (a book alluded to in the Charleston puzzle). Unfortunately, there was no way a person could possibly associate the two words from the text without knowing what to look for. In other words, you couldn’t make the association unless you were specifically looking for it. It’s just a coincidence. Fail. 

This journey down rabbit hole after rabbit hole represents a good chunk of how I spend my time analyzing these puzzles. The tricky bit is knowing when to quit. In this case, we again have to change tactics.