# Sudoku as Poetry: A Tag-Fusion Masterpiece

This is an entry in the 19th fortnightly topic challenge: Unconventional Tag Fusion.

I wrote some poetry for you, but it's hidden within this sudoku. Solve the puzzle and find the poem.

For those who want a text version, try this:

C..OZE.K...T..A..I...FDSG
X..MS...BF.K.PD...GY.C.T.
......Q.V.OZU....L..MAX.I
YAEVN...IW.B....K.ZC..QR.
.GW.F.N.U.E.V.I.S...K.L..
.C..E..........QA..LXI...
...K..E.F.BN....H...C.TZM
B..Z.P.X...OIG.NW.C.E.Y..
.Y..................N..BV
.R..V.TBM.QCK.....D..W.U.
..ABQ...G........RXP.U...
.EG.H.ASO..U....BC.W.X.V.
OW.DCR..XZP..I.T.V.U..AM.
.TVI...U.Y.SAB.L..Q..NZFK
.....IBV.P..W..Y...S.TE.Q
......Y..Q..MN.....HOVC.E
.V.QR.U...S.PK.M....TH...
W...B..E..DA.Q.......P...
..OCYBM...V.E.X.R..K....L
K.Z.M.D...G.LT...PYE..RQ.
....A....O.V....TKP.FGBC.
.P..G......LCZ.VOH..QM...
..C.....QT..BU.Z..EA..V..
H.BX.....KAG.E.R.D.M..P..
.ZQYD........R..L..B...H.

• Looks fun! I think "J" is our odd letter out for the 25x25 grid. – Dan Russell Nov 10 '16 at 22:21
• A non-colour version would have been nice – Jonathan Allan Nov 11 '16 at 8:07

# The poem is ...

I tried to solve a sudoku
Without a clue of what to do
I guessed and queried quite perplexed
Eventually I got quite vexed
I finally solved the tricky quiz
And now know what tag fusion is

The completed sudoku puzzle looks like this
- hopefully no errors made in the transcription from the original text version

Original text version solution - this is what I used to solve it:

CulOZ EpKhr nTymA wqIvx bFDSG
XqiMS ozlBF rKhPD aueGY vCwTn
dbkpt sQyVc OZUwg hnLfr MAXeI
YAEVN tgdIW fBsxl pKmZC hoQRu
rGWhF aNmUx EqVcI bStod KyLpz

uCmwE yohzn trfvp QAbkL XIsgd
qxpKo gEiFu BNdaw sHyrv ClTZM
BdhZl PsXkv mOIGu NWfCt EqYar
aYtsi qrcwd zexlh upomg NkfBV
gRfnV lTBMa QCKsy eixDz pWoUh

sfABQ nltGe kmzov idRXP wUhyc
zEGrH fASOm lUtyq kBCnW dXiVp
OWyDC RkqXZ PfgIn TeVhU lbAMs
pTVIx hwUdY cSABe LmgQo rNZFK
mknlu IBVcP xdWhr YfzaS gTEoQ

flxap kYgrQ uiMNb dzstH OVCwE
eVdQR wUonl SyPKz Mcabi THgxf
WhsgB cvEti DArQo fxuln zPmky
KnZuM xDfah GwLTc ovPYE isRQb

lmueA zhryO iVnds xTKPq FGBCw
iPrtG uxweb yLCZk VOHsf QMnda
nsCfk dipQT hxBUm ZgwEA yrVlo
HoBXw vcnlK AGqEf RyDuM szPit
vZQYD mfasg wpoRt cLniB uekHx


Uppercase are letters that were supplied; lower-case were added while solving.

It should be noted that the sudoku is not fully constrained; I was left with a handful of naked pairs & triples that couldn't be resolved without just arbitrarily picking a letter somewhere and working with it.

OYZ at col 9 row 6&21 / row 21 col 6&9 / row 2 col 6&7 / col 7 rows 2&6
BS at col 22 rows 13&20 / col 25 row 13&20 / row 13 col 22&25 / row 20 col 22&25

For the colored squares ...

Reading each color in order as it appears in the puzzle, you get:

$\begin{array}{lcl}\mathbf{blue}&&\text{EveNtuallYigotqUITevEXed}\\ \mathbf{violet}&&\text{AndnoWKnoWwhAtTAgfuSiOnis}\\ \mathbf{yellow}&&\text{wIthOutaclUeOFWHattodo}\\ \mathbf{green}&&\text{IGuessEdANdqueRiedQuItEPERPlexED}\\ \mathbf{indigo}&&\text{iFINaLLysolvEDThETricKyQUiZ}\\ \mathbf{orange}&&\text{asUdOkU}\\ \mathbf{red}&&\text{ITriedTOsOlve}\\ \end{array}$

Adding spaces and putting the lines in their spectral ordering ROYGBIV(thanks OP!) gives the poem as presented above.

How I solved it

I solved what I could via normal Sudoku rules. When I got stuck, I look at the text of the messages and guessed what letter or entire word choices seemed highly likely to complete the poem, and used those to fill in their colored squares in the grid. Then back and forth between those two methods until I got the whole thing done.

• Whoa, this is amazing! – ABcDexter Nov 11 '16 at 8:29
• Good work! I was trying to make sure there was a unique solution, but the size of the puzzle made it difficult. I figured that the poem would provide enough clues to resolve any ambiguities, which it seems it did. – GentlePurpleRain Nov 11 '16 at 12:54
• The intention was to order the lines in spectral order: RED-ORANGE-YELLOW-GREEN-BLUE-INDIGO-VIOLET. – GentlePurpleRain Nov 11 '16 at 12:56
• Oh - yeah I see that now. I wondered if there was a method to their ordering beyond textual context, but at that point I'd used textual context so often that one last time seemed to make sense. And since my choice of color namings differed radically from yours I didn't pick up on the spectrum aspect. Anyway - great fun, great puzzle, A++++++ would solve again. – Rubio Nov 11 '16 at 16:05