When the English tongue we speak

Why is break not rhymed with freak?

Will you tell me why it’s true

We say sew, but likewise 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, but 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.

Wherefore done, but gone and lone

Is there any reason known?

To sum up all, it seems to me

Sounds and letters don’t agree.

Written by Lord Cromer, published in the Spectator of August 9th, 1902.