Riddle Poem: These four require a detour

Question

Most in our family
Are born whole and quickly.

But not us four
Who require a detour.

We don't want to interrupt
Until the rest is developed.

So until then we wait
To be put into our complete state.

Then everything will make sense
When finished is the sequence.

Who are the "four" that this poem refers to?

score 13 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 16 '14 at 05:15

13

My guess is:

the letters 'i', 't', 'j', and 'x'. Letters you complete after you write a word in cursive (dot your i's and cross your t's!).

edited Nov 16 '14 at 05:15

pacoverflow

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answered Nov 13 '14 at 19:53

kbosak

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@Geobits you might wait till the end of a word... at least in cursive. – TheRubberDuck Nov 13 '14 at 19:55
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@EnvisionAndDevelop You have the correct answer. +1 to kbosak. – pacoverflow Nov 13 '14 at 19:55
@pacoverflow had to revise the 4th.. forgot my cursive! ;-) – kbosak Nov 13 '14 at 19:59
I meant to say that you should edit your answer to specify the cursive lowercase letters 'i', 'j', 't', and 'x'. Non-cursive letters are not a correct answer. – pacoverflow Nov 13 '14 at 21:54
@pacoverflow - Why is 'x' on the list?? – Rand al'Thor Nov 16 '14 at 18:56
@randal'thor When you write a word such as "examine" in cursive, you can't finish the 'x' until after you've finished the word, right? – pacoverflow Nov 16 '14 at 19:09
@pacoverflow - Not in my handwriting! I do curly 'x's that go (top left)->(bottom left)->(top right)->(bottom right). What sort of 'x' requires going back at the end? I'm curious :-) – Rand al'Thor Nov 16 '14 at 20:21
@randal'thor Here is an example: http://www.studenthandouts.com/01-Web-Pages/2013-01-a/quick-brown-fox-cursive-script-handwritinng-practice.jpg – pacoverflow Nov 16 '14 at 20:49

d'alar'cop · Answer 2 · 2014-11-19T03:46:39.477

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Are the 4:

Wisdom teeth

Most in our family Are born whole and quickly.

You normally have most of your teeth all at once.

But not us four Who would require a detour.

There are 4 teeth which come at some other unexpected time.

We don't want to interrupt Until the rest is developed.

They only come out AFTER the period of loosing baby-teeth has occurred.

So until then we wait To be put into our complete state.

Just poetic emphasis of the previous.

Then everything will make sense When finished is the sequence.

There is no further normal activity after the wisdom teeth have established themselves.

edited Nov 19 '14 at 03:46

answered Nov 13 '14 at 19:29

d'alar'cop

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That's not what I had in mind. – pacoverflow Nov 13 '14 at 19:31
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@pacoverflow Oh good. That means it's not over so quickly – d'alar'cop Nov 13 '14 at 19:33

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 13 '14 at 20:50

0

this is my thought:

Un-born quadruplets. two of them are fully developed in the womb, so they are waiting for the other two to develop so as not to interrupt their growth. As it is 4 children, a cesarean section will probably be used, which is a detour to the regular way of being born quickly.

i have no idea how i came up with this so quickly.

edited Nov 13 '14 at 20:50

pacoverflow

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answered Nov 13 '14 at 19:33

The Hidden Ninja

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That's not what I had in mind. I just added a couple lines. – pacoverflow Nov 13 '14 at 19:50

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 13 '14 at 20:17

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A tough one.. :)

Probably it's not so easy, but could it be

the signs at the end of a sentence -> . ! ? ;

answered Nov 13 '14 at 20:17

zlobi.wan.kenobi

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Building on this, what if it's not punctuation ending a sentence, but rather punctuation interrupting a sentence? - : ; , – Kenogu Labz Nov 13 '14 at 21:47
Second idea: could also be the paired punctuation marks: (), {}, [], "" – Kenogu Labz Nov 13 '14 at 21:49

Riddle Poem: These four require a detour

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