Ottet: An Octet of "-ot" Couples (with Supplemental Codotta)

          i. 

Baseball all-star Ott 
(call'd Mel, is Melvin not...?), 
a player who 
aspires to 
the Sultanate of Swat.

     Randolph Caldecott

resembles Ed Lear...NOT!

He does, although,

like Ed, earn dough

through sketches Randy'd jot. 

          ii. 

Jaat, a Hottenttot, 
performs his turkey trot 
while speaking !Kung, 
which twists his tongue. 
(This guy's a polyglot.) 
     Big bigot Margie Schott 
dispenses tommyrot, 
slurs "Japs" 'n' "Kikes,"
prefers Third Reichs: 
progressive Marge is not.

 

          iii. 

The Lady of Shalott 
dwells east of Camelot. 
Her lunch is curd; 
her munch preferr'd 
is oil of Bergamot. 
     Doctors say I've got 
a DVT -- a clot.
At first, my knees 
prove not "the bees.'" 
And now my veins are shot.

         iv.
M. Jean-Paul Marat 
extolls les sans-culottes. 
For this, Corday 
makes Jean-Paul pay: 
she stabs him, sans garrotte. 
     Hale Lucretia Mott 
assails male rule as rot. 
Her sister Suffs 
puff, "'Nuf's enough! 
We want that vote you've got."

         v. 

Brave Sir Lancelot 
slays knaves at Camelot. 
He's play'd by Cleese 
with expertise 
in Broadway's "Spamalot." 
     Dick and Jane's dog Spot 
those siblings train to trot, 
to fetch a ball 
nor that ain't all: 
that mutt can put a shot! 

     vi. 

Soprano Montserrat, 
on tour in "Turandot," 
earns ill reviews,
plus rounds of "boo!"s.' 
"Whaht ahm I: shahp or flaht...?"
     Milkah's brother Lot, 
once Sodom grows too hot 
(Gomorrah, too, 
comes down with feu), 
hightails it 'board his yacht.

     vii. 
Author Walter Scott 
is master of the plot. 
His seamless schemes 
Walt draws from dreams 
he dreams while smoking pot. 
     Benoit Mandelbrot 
with fractals casts his lot. 
D'you think it's larks 
to track those arcs...? 
If so, you don't know squat.

     viii. 
Pointillist Seurat,
whose girlfriend's name is Dot,
spends day 'n' night 
depicting light 
nigh Island of Grande Jatte. 
     Cambodia's Pol Pot 
'pon hist'ry plants a blot. 
He dwelt back then 
in west Phnom Penh 
but long'd for Angkor Wat.

     Codotta 

Betty Arbuthnot 
and Anastas'ya Ott, 
Monsieur Fermat, 
Herr Durrenmatt 
and football's T. J. Watt. 
    Henry Endicott,

the Hoople known as Mott, 
one Huguenot 
and Alex Trott:

they're all the "-ot"s I've got.