Odd rhyme claim

[Jonathan Lighter]

Hmm. At any rate, yes, the "Ode" is the poem referred to.

JL

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 5:30 PM, David Bergdahl <dlbrgdhl at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Subject:      Re: Odd rhyme claim
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> Hugh Kenner, in the opening chapter to his The Pound Era records a
> conversation between Ezra Pound and Henry James in London in which
> James utters the word patriot in 3 syllables, probably /'pae tri Ot/
> so thought /thOt/ would rhyme.
> -db
>
> On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 5:23 PM, Karl Hagen <karl at polysyllabic.com> wrote:
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> > Subject:      Re: Odd rhyme claim
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> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I presume Hollander is talking about Emerson's poem "Ode to William H.
> > Channing", the first stanza of which reads
> >
> > Though loth to grieve
> > The evil time's sole patriot,
> > I cannot leave
> > My buried thought
> > For the priest's cant,
> > Or statesman's rant.
> >
> > He seems to be assuming the rhyme scheme is ababcc. The only problem is
> that the
> > poem as a whole does not have a regular rhyme scheme, and many of the
> stanzas
> > have unrhymed lines (or slant rhyme). So this is no good evidence for
> actual
> > rhyming in Emerson's day.
> >
> > Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Odd rhyme claim
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> The poet John Hollander asserts that New England is "the only region of
> the
> >> nation" (or was in Emerson's time) "in whose dialect _patriot_ rhymes
> with
> >> _thought_."
> >>
> >> Really? I'd have guessed that _patriot_ "rhymes" with _thought_  nowhere
> on
> >> Panet Earth.  Or is Hollander being facetious at Emerson's expense?
>  Yeah,
> >> that must be it.  Sorry.
> >>
> >> On the other hand....I'm curious.
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
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