"I say...Lusitani-ay"

[Jonathan Lighter]

In 1879 Matthew Arnold wrote a sonnet titled "S. S. Lusitania" concerning an offspring's voyage on the ship of that name (not the one torpedoed in 1915).

  At the conclusion of this very serious sonnet, Arnold rhymes "Lusitania" with "I say."
  This is obviously not "eye-rhyme" and seems unlikely to me to be "slant rhyme."  It reminds me instead of how character actors like Gabby Hayes used to pronounce "California" in old westerns.

  Does anyone know enough about standard mid-Victorian pronunciation and/ or poetic practice to elucidate this "rhyme" ?  Did Arnold have some in-between
  diphthong in both words ?

  JL


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