Nor is mould like should and would. Dearest creature in creation Banquet is not nearly parquet, Studying English pronunciation, Which exactly rhymes with khaki. I will teach you in my verse Discount, viscount, load and broad, Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse. Toward, to forward, to reward, I will keep you, Susy, busy, Ricocheted and crocheting, croquet? Make your head with heat grow dizzy; Right! Your pronunciation's OK. Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear; Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer. Friend and fiend, alive and live. Pray, console your loving poet, Is your r correct in higher? Make my coat look new, dear, sew it! Keats asserts it rhymes Thalia. Just compare heart, hear and heard, Hugh, but hug, and hood, but hoot, Dies and diet, lord and word. Buoyant, minute, but minute. Sword and sward, retain and Britain Say abscission with precision, (Mind the latter how it's written). Now: position and transition; Made has not the sound of bade, Would it tally with my rhyme Say-said, pay-paid, laid but plaid. If I mentioned paradigm? Now I surely will not plague you Twopence, threepence, tease are easy, With such words as vague and ague, But cease, crease, grease and greasy? But be careful how you speak, Cornice, nice, valise, revise, Say: gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak , Rabies, but lullabies. Previous, precious, fuchsia, via Of such puzzling words as nauseous, Recipe, pipe, studding-sail, choir; Rhyming well with cautious, tortious, Woven, oven, how and low, You'll envelop lists, I hope, Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe. In a linen envelope. Say, expecting fraud and trickery: Would you like some more? You'll have it! Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore, Affidavit, David, davit. Branch, ranch, measles, topsails, aisles, To abjure, to perjure. Sheik Missiles, similes, reviles. Does not sound like Czech but ache. Wholly, holly, signal, signing, Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Same, examining, but mining, Rachel, loch, moustache, eleven. Scholar, vicar, and cigar, We say hallowed, but allowed, Solar, mica, war and far. People, leopard, towed but vowed. From "desire": desirable-admirable from Mark the difference, moreover, "admire", Between mover, plover, Dover. Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier, Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Topsham, brougham, renown, but known, Chalice, but police and lice, Knowledge, done, lone, gone, none, tone, Camel, constable, unstable, One, anemone, Balmoral, Principle, disciple, label. Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel. Petal, penal, and canal, Gertrude, German, wind and wind, Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal, Beau, kind, kindred, queue, mankind, Suit, suite, ruin. Circuit, conduit Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather, Rhyme with "shirk it" and "beyond it", Reading, Reading, heathen, heather. But it is not hard to tell This phonetic labyrinth Why it's pall, mall, but Pall Mall. Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth. Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron, Have you ever yet endeavoured Timber, climber, bullion, lion, To pronounce revered and severed, Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Demon, lemon, ghoul, foul, soul, Senator, spectator, mayor, Peter, petrol and patrol? Ivy, privy, famous; clamour Billet does not end like ballet; Has the a of drachm and hammer. Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Pussy, hussy and possess, No. Yet Froude compared with proud Desert, but desert, address. Is no better than McLeod. Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants But mind trivial and vial, Hoist in lieu of flags left pennants. Tripod, menial, denial, Courier, courtier, tomb, bomb, comb, Troll and trolley, realm and ream, Cow, but Cowper, some and home. Schedule, mischief, schism, and scheme. "Solder, soldier!Blood is thicker", Argil, gill, Argyll, gill. Surely Quoth he, "than liqueur or liquor", May be made to rhyme with Raleigh, Making, it is sad but true, But you're not supposed to say In bravado, much ado. Piquet rhymes with sobriquet. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Had this invalid invalid Neither does devour with clangour. Worthless documents? How pallid, Pilot, pivot, gaunt, but aunt, How uncouth he, couchant, looked, Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant. When for Portsmouth I had booked! Arsenic, specific, scenic, Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite, Relic, rhetoric, hygienic. Paramour, enamoured, flighty, Gooseberry, goose, and close, but close, Episodes, antipodes, Paradise, rise, rose, and dose. Acquiesce, and obsequies. Say inveigh, neigh, but inveigle, Please don't monkey with the geyser, Make the latter rhyme with eagle. Don't peel 'taters with my razor, Mind! Meandering but mean, Rather say in accents pure: Valentine and magazine. Nature, stature and mature. And I bet you, dear, a penny, Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly, You say mani-(fold) like many, Worsted, worsted, crumbly, dumbly, Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier, Conquer, conquest, vase, phase, fan, Tier (one who ties), but tier. Wan, sedan and artisan. Arch, archangel; pray, does erring The th will surely trouble you Rhyme with herring or with stirring? More than r, ch or w. Prison, bison, treasure trove, Say then these phonetic gems: Treason, hover, cover, cove, Thomas, thyme, Theresa, Thames. Perseverance, severance. Ribald Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham, Rhymes (but piebald doesn't) with nibbled. There are more but I forget 'em- Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw, Wait! I've got it: Anthony, Lien, psychic, shone, bone, pshaw. Lighten your anxiety. Don't be down, my own, but rough it, The archaic word albeit And distinguish buffet, buffet; Does not rhyme with eight-you see it; Brood, stood, roof, rook, school, wool, boon, With and forthwith, one has voice, Worcester, Boleyn, to impugn. One has not, you make your choice. Say in sounds correct and sterling Shoes, goes, does *. Now first say: finger; Hearse, hear, hearken, year and yearling. Then say: singer, ginger, linger. Evil, devil, mezzotint, Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge, Mind the z! (A gentle hint.) Marriage, foliage, mirage, age, Now you need not pay attention Hero, heron, query, very, To such sounds as I don't mention, Parry, tarry fury, bury, Sounds like pores, pause, pours and paws, Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth, Rhyming with the pronoun yours; Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath. Nor are proper names included, Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners, Though I often heard, as you did, Bowing, bowing, banjo-tuners Funny rhymes to unicorn, Holm you know, but noes, canoes, Yes, you know them, Vaughan and Strachan. Puisne, truism, use, to use? No, my maiden, coy and comely, Though the difference seems little, I don't want to speak of Cholmondeley. We say actual, but victual, Seat, sweat, chaste, caste, Leigh, eight, height, Once, but nonce, toll, doll, but roll, Put, nut, granite, and unite. Polish, Polish, poll and poll. Reefer does not rhyme with deafer, Pronunciation-think of Psyche!- Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Is a paling, stout and spiky. Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late, Won't it make you lose your wits Hint, pint, senate, but sedate. Writing groats and saying "grits"? Gaelic, Arabic, pacific, It's a dark abyss or tunnel Science, conscience, scientific; Strewn with stones like rowlock, gunwale, Tour, but our, dour, succour, four, Islington, and Isle of Wight, Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Housewife, verdict and indict. Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit, Don't you think so, reader, rather, Next omit, which differs from it Saying lather, bather, father? Bona fide, alibi Finally, which rhymes with enough, Gyrate, dowry and awry. Though, through, bough, cough, hough, sough, Sea, idea, guinea, area, tough?? Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Hiccough has the sound of sup... Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean, My advice is: GIVE IT UP! Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion with battalion, Rally with ally; yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay! Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, receiver. Never guess-it is not safe, We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf. Starry, granary, canary, Crevice, but device, and eyrie, Face, but preface, then grimace, Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Bass, large, target, gin, give, verging, Ought, oust, joust, and scour, but scourging; Ear, but earn; and ere and tear Do not rhyme with here but heir. Mind the o of off and often Which may be pronounced as orphan, With the sound of saw and sauce; Also soft, lost, cloth and cross. Pudding, puddle, putting. Putting? Yes: at golf it rhymes with shutting. Respite, spite, consent, resent. Liable, but Parliament. Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen, Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk, Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work. A of valour, vapid vapour, S of news (compare newspaper), G of gibbet, gibbon, gist, I of antichrist and grist, Differ like diverse and divers, Rivers, strivers, shivers, fivers.