Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, core, horse and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear, So shall I, oh, hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard and herd, Dice and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sword, retain and Britain, Mind the letter how it's written.
Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and aque,
But be careful how you speak, Say break and stake, but bleak and streak.
Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, recede, show, poem and tow,
Here may say devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter and tubsickery,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, similes and reviles,
Scholar, vicar and cigar, solar, mica, War and far,
One, anemone, Balmoral, kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel,
Gertrude, German, wind and wind, Sin, melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mood like chute and wood,
Viscous, vicount, lowed and broad, Toward to forward to reward,
And your pronunciations, okay, When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and limp,
Ivy, privy, famous, clemme, And anemone, rhyme with hammer,
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Dole and roll, and some in home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangor,
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Font, front, want, grand and grand,
Shoes, gauze, dars, now first say finger, And then zinger, ginger, linger,
Reel, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Quarry does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like berry,
Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loath, Job, nub, bosom, transom, oath,
Though the differences seem little, We say actual, but…
Refer does not rhyme with differ, Refer, doth, and ziffer,
Heifer, mint, pine, senate, and sedate, Dull, bull, and George, eight late,
Cynic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific,
Liberty, library, heave, and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven,
We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, toad, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover, Between mover, cover, clover,
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Cellis, but police analyze,
Camel, constable, unstable, Principal, disciple, label, petal, panel,
and canal, Weight, surprise, plate, promise, pal,
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor, tour,
but hour, and secour, four, Gas, alas, and Arkansas, sea, idea, career,
Psalm, mariah, but malaria, Youth, south, southern, cleanse, and clean,
Doctrine, turpentine, marine, Campere, ellen, with Italian,
Dandelion, and battalion, Sally, with a lie, yea, ye, I, I,
A, I, we, and key, Say, a fur, but ever, fever,
Neither laser, skein, deceiver, Heron, granary, canary,
Crevice and device, and airy, Face, but preface, not a face,
Flem, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass, Bass, large, but target, gene,
Give, verging, ought, out, joust, and scour, Scourging, ear, but own, and wear, and tear,
Do not rhyme with here, but air.
Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, ruffen, nephew, steven,
Monkey, donkey, turk, and jerk, Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork, and work,
Pronunciation, think of psyche, Is a paling stout and spiky,
Won't it make you lose your wits, Writing rhodes and saying grids?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel, Stroomed with stones, toad, solace, gunwale,
Ellington and dial of white, Housewife, verdict, and indict,
Finally, which rhymes with enough, Though, through, plough, or doe, or cove?
Kick-up has the sound of cup, My advice is to give up.
