The Chaos by G.

Nolst Trenité (1870-1946) Exiles, similes, and reviles;

Dearest creature in creation, Scholar, vicar, and cigar,

Study English pronunciation. Solar, mica, war and far;

I will teach you in my verse One, anemone, Balmoral,

Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;

and worse.
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Make your head with heat grow
Billet does not rhyme with
dizzy.

Tear in eye, your dress will tear. ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet,

So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. chalet.

Just compare heart, beard, and Blood and flood are not like food,
heard,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
Toward, to forward, to reward.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
And your pronunciation's OK
Now I surely will not plague you
When you correctly say croquet,
With such words as plaque and
Rounded, wounded, grieve and
ague.
sieve,
But be careful how you speak:
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Say break and steak, but bleak and
streak; Ivy, privy, famous; clamour

And enamour rhyme with hammer.

Cloven, oven, how and low,
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Doll and roll and some and home.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,

Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
 Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Mark the differences, moreover,

Between mover, cover, clover;

1
Leeches, breeches, wise,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and
grant, precise, Chalice, but police and

Shoes, goes, does. Now first say lice;

finger,
Camel, constable, unstable,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Principle, disciple, label.
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge
and gauge, Petal, panel, and canal,

Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age. Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.

Query does not rhyme with very, Worm and storm, chaise, chaos,
chair,
Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job,
Tour, but our and succour, four.
nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
the differences seem little, We say
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
actual but victual.
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
clean.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Compare alien with Italian,
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Dandelion and battalion.
Science, conscience, scientific.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
We say hallowed, but allowed,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Heron, granary, canary.
 Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.

2
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass,
bass.

Large, but target, gin, give, verging,

Ought, out, joust and scour,

scourging.

Ear, but earn and wear and tear

Do not rhyme with here but ere.

Seven is right, but so is even,

Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,

Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,

Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and

work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!

Is a paling stout and spikey?

Won't it make you lose your wits,

Writing groats and saying grits?

It's a dark abyss or tunnel:

Strewn with stones, stowed, solace,

gunwale,

Islington and Isle of Wight,

Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough --

Though, through, plough, or dough,

or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.

My advice is to give up!!!