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My parts are
eternal,
shooting,
fine,
picked up,
willing and
hand in hand in a line.

Come again, you say?
Indeed, I may,
and then you will know my name, I pray.

What am I?

Hint:

My parts are affixed.
My ends they are betwixt.
The bounds of my neighboring parts are intermixed.

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2 Answers 2

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I believe the answer is

restartable

"My parts are"..."hand in hand in a line"

refers to how the lines of the poem in between these two, are "parts" of the word, which go "hand-in-hand"

To expand on that, the hint means

that the parts of the word appear in the order they're presented ("they are affixed"), and that the letters from the end of each word will appear in the beginning of the next one ("the bounds of my neighboring parts are intermixed"). Admittedly, I'm not sure what "My ends they are betwixt" means, unless it's simply referring to how the lines referring to the parts of the word are "betwixt" the start and end lines of the poem.

As for each "part"...

eternal,

"eternal rest" (death)

shooting,

"shooting star"

fine,

"fine art"

picked up,

"pick up the tab"

willing and

"willing and able"

Put those together to get the answer.

"rest" + "(st)ar" + "(ar)t" + "(t)ab" + "(ab)le" = "restartable"

Which meshes well with the final clue:

Come again, you say? Indeed, I may, and then you will know my name, I pray.

given that

restartable = you can start again, aka "I may come again"

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  • $\begingroup$ Nice job! Affixed is actually a play on a word that could describe the relation of the parts to the answer. $\endgroup$
    – noedne
    May 13, 2018 at 2:20
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Partial Answer

Just to get the ball rolling, what first comes to mind: That the first part seems to be referencing lines

My parts are

Stating that the following will be things that the word line is a part of

eternal

The eternal line of time, a time line

shooting,

a shooting line, either referring to a fishing line or people lining up to shoot at the same time or to be shot

fine,

a fine line, as in the saying to walk a fine line between two different things.

picked up,

a pick up line

willing

as in the saying: are you willing to put everything on the line?

hand in hand in a line.

Referencing itself, and if people stand hand in hand, they are a line.

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  • $\begingroup$ Good try :) but I think this interpretation of "my parts are..." is actually saying "I am...," which is not the same. $\endgroup$
    – noedne
    Apr 30, 2018 at 16:54

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