Odd rhyme claim

[David Bergdahl]

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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> Poster:       Karl Hagen <karl at POLYSYLLABIC.COM>
> 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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>> 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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