Here is an interesting poem I found on Pinterest recently.
When the English tongue we speak
Why is break not rhymed with weak?
Won't you tell me why it's true
We say sew, but also few?
And the maker of a verse
Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?
Beard is not the same as heard,
Cord is different from word,
Cow is cow, low is low,
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of hose and dose and lose,
And think of goose and yet of choose,
Think of comb and tomb and bomb,
Doll and roll and home and some.
And since pay is rhymed with say,
Why not paid with said I pray?
Think of blood and food and good;
Mould is not pronounced like could.
Why is done, but gone and lone -
Is there any reason known?
To sum it up, it seems to me
That sounds and letters don't agree.
"When the English Tongue we Speak"
by
~Evelyn Baring~
The author is Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer. You can read more about him if you click on his name underneath the poem. I haven't read all the way through his biography yet, as I wanted to get this published for my blog post. He seems to be a very interesting person.
His poem, often titled "Our Strange Lingo" or "Our Queer Language", was written by him and first published in the London magazine, The Spectator, on August 9th, 1902.
The verses are frequently used by English teachers and language enthusiasts to illustrate the frustrating inconsistencies between English spelling and pronunciation.
While Lord Cromer wrote this specific version, it is often confused with a much longer and more complex poem titled "The Chaos," written by Dutch traveler, writer and teacher, Gerard Nolst Trenité in 1920, which follows a similar theme.
