Writings in the Sand

Seeing Rhyme All the Time

English is not the most sensible language in the world. The rules have more exceptions than one can easily fit in a mnemonic rhyme. This is due to the vast number of words English has borrowed from other languages. This gives English a rich variety of words that one can use to convey shades of meaning to exactly capture a thought or feeling. But that also leads to confusion.Words that look alike may come from completely different roots and for that reason have different pronunciations and meanings. They may even fool us with using what appears to be the wrong plurals.

For instance, the natural inclination for making the word "octopus" plural is to say "octopi". But octopus is not a Latin word, it has its roots in Greek. Octopuses is more correct. I say more correct because these days, if you can get enough people to agree to the wrong spelling/meaning/pronuciation, the dictionary will include it or even change it so that the original spelling/meaning/pronunciation is lost and found only in heavy, dusty volumes on the forgotten shelves of unvisited libraries.

All of that was to lead to this question:

Do you think that "synopsis" and "hypnosis"really do rhyme but we've all been brainwashed to believe otherwise?

I decided that the presence of words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently is a boon to poets, because many times one can get away with a "visual rhyme". Even if words did once rhyme and now don't, who's going to tell Shakespeare he can't rhyme "flies" with "enemies"?

And so I offer my visual poetry. It rhymes as long as you don't read it.

Spring has sprung buds enough
To thoroughly cover ev’ry bough
Buds unfurled are still small though
And so the Sun shines right through

Rain drizzles down like sweet hypnosis
So concludes my Spring synopsis