This is a keyword cypher so let’s start with the key word. It was to be found in this quote from the fabulous Mae West:
“I was Snow While, but then I drifted.”
The keyword was Snow White, with the second W removed, so snowhite.
Next, the cipher is created by writing the key word, and then the remaining letters of the alphabet in order. Those are written over the normal alphabet
| s | n | o | w | h | i | t | e | a | b | c | d | f | g | j | k | l | m | p | q | r | u | v | x | y | z |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z |
Now you can decode the text:
Gj nmhsqe ji vagw,
Gj tdhsf ji prg –
Pqadd qeh veaqh pgjv
Pvamdp pjiqdy wjvg –
Qvat sgw njrte
Sgw nds sgw qejmg
Sdd ag sg aoy
Lrahq, ijmdjmg.
Becomes:
No breath of wind,
No gleam of sun –
Still the white snow
Swirls softly down –
Twig and bough
And blade and thorn
All in an icy
Quiet, forlorn.
This is the start of the poem “Snow” by Walter De La Mare
No breath of wind,
No gleam of sun –
Still the white snow
Swirls softly down –
Twig and bough
And blade and thorn
All in an icy
Quiet, forlorn.
Whispering, nestling,
Through the air,
On sill and stone,
Roof – everywhere,
It heaps its powdery
Crystal flakes,
Of every tree
A mountain makes:
Till pale and faint
At shut of day,
Stoops from the West
One wintry ray.
Then, feathered in fire,
Where ghosts the moon,
A robin shrills
His lonely tune;
And from her dark-gnarled
Yew-tree lair
Flits she who had been
In hiding there.
For a lesson in Key Word Cyphers, check out this link to a Cornell lecture: https://pi.math.cornell.edu/Lecture4/KeyWordCipher
The poem was sourced from: https://www.public-domain-poetry.com/ The ads are annoying, but the site it otherwise great.
Meet the short story writer and poet Walter de la Mare on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_de_la_Mare
And get to know the woman I admire as among the wittest who ever graced the planet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_West
TG Wolff 