:: Why Poetry? :: :: Ms. Sheena :: :: Piquant Prose ::
Did you write a poem? Did you find something poetic? Do you just want to share? Submit your (pictures, opinions, poems, videos, songs etc etc) to weeatpoetry@gmail.com
If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world.
After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, 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 heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
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 mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
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!!!
English Pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenité
Taken from right here
Here are the marks! I wanted to make a more detailed assessment as mentioned in class but because of time constraint, I’ve assessed based on the requirements stated in the previous We Eat Poetry assessment guideline. For the total marks, add the class assessment with your group assessment marks.
Any questions or concerns, please email me at weeatpoetry@gmail.com :)
Strong Enough by FHN
A secret that was told too much
Flew from ear to mouth
They talk about my feelings
They talk about who I am inside
One secret is all they need and
They think they know me oh-so-well
Though none got me right and all got me wrong
Still despite it all, I was stripped naked
I was standing in front of them all
Powerless of saying or doing anything
When all I want to do is cry myself to sleep
They told me to put on a strong face
They told me to fight it
Yes, they were my pick-me-ups; I can’t deny it
When all I want to do is stay, flattened
on the ground and just weep
They told me to put up a brave front
They told me to hold the fort, don’t run
As if what I am doing right now is not brave enough
As if my tears shouldn’t fall or kept as pools in my eyes
When all I want to do is cry myself to scream
Let me grieve and let me weep so I can feel
After all the pain I have hidden
After all the tears I have forgotten
Still they think I am not strong enough
Hey you,
If I was not, you would not be standing here
but near my graveyard stone, you would be standing on dear.
My turn to perform? Haha. I’ll be performing my poems at the upcoming launch of Kata Kita. Find out more on the event at its Facebook page by clicking on the image :) See you there.
Here are the examples of sonnets. Do have a look at them, use the dictionary to assist your reading and bring the poems to class!
Completed CAM
Salam everyone!
While you prepare yourself for your final exams, please note that your CAM for ENGL 1515 is now complete. If there are any discrepancies or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Thank you!
Keep Walking
by Nur Asyrani Ryssa
keep walking,
even if it is tiring,
just make a move,
so that you won’t too easily lose.
keep walking,
even if you feel pain a-shooting,
just move forward,
even the world never moves backward.
keep walking,
even if you could not stop complaining,
even if your two legs know,
how far more you have to go.
Just keep on walking!
We Eat (Gothic) Poetry Gig
Friday, 16th December 2011
8.30 pm - 10.00 pm
Mini Auditorium, IIUM
This is an event open to all, admission is free. Please remember that all performances and materials offered during the event will be subject to assessment by Ms. Sheena Baharudin. See you there!
