Heard on Springer: _strewn_ [stroUn]

[Laurence Horn]

Just heard an instance of what the OED terms the "now arch. and dial." pronunciation of this verb, as above, in a traditional ballad, "Poor Ellen Smith" (this version sung by Wilma Lee Cooper).  In the relevant verse, "strew" would rhyme perfectly with "goes" if it weren't for the latter's inflection:

Some day he'll go home
And stay when he goes
On poor Ellen's grave
Pretty flowers he will strew ["strow"]

Curiously, none of the several disparate web-compiled versions of the lyrics of this ballad (which deals with a loafer who was convicted, possibly wrongfully, of the eponymous Ms. Smith's brutal murder) include this verse or the line "flowers he will strew", a string which in fact shows up in Google only once, in a plot summary for Shakespeare's _Cymbeline_.  I probably wouldn't have noticed the line myself if we hadn't had this recent thread initiated by Wilson (and Springer's guest).

LH

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