The Indianapolis journal., 1885-05-03
MINOR MENTION.

THE remark of the Journal recently that sit
was creditable to the English language that it
contained no word to rhyme to mugwump," has
suggested that an entertaining paragraph or two
might be made of a collection of the odd and
ingenious rhymes that have been contrived to
fit other cases of the same kind. AT one of the
breakfasts that the banker-poet Rogers was not
ed for giving to celebrities of all nationalities,
James Smith, also banker and poet and one of
the authors of the celebrated parodies called
Rejected Addresses" was present In the
course of the conversation the subject Of rhym
ing came up, and some one suggested that he
had never seen, and hc did not think there could
be found, or made, rhyme to the word "chin-
Eey." Mr. Smith, SO the story ran, said nothing
at the moment, but soon after read a little
sketch in verse of fire in workshop and the
efforts to extinguish it, and introduced couplet,
making the impossible rhyme in something like
this fashion:
And working around the chimney
Wera the master and prentice of slim-knee."
1t was not nearly so neat a job as "Carl Ben
sons" when challenged to make rhyme to
"velocipede, and did it with stopping to give
my hoss feed" Quite as good as that, and
better than Smiths, was the rhyme to Timbuc-
too, that some unknown or unnamed genius made
on similar challenge:
''If were cassowary
On the plains of Tmbuctoo,
would eat missionary
Blood and bones, and hymn-book too.''
Byron's three legged rhyme is, Of course, fa
miliar to most readers
Ye lords of ladies intellectual
Say have they not hen-pecked you alll"
o1,c H. -
Pauls with the celebrated Sydney Smith, was
probably the readiest rhymer and the most ac-
curate in metrcal construction of all the literary
men of England. In one of his 'Ingoldsby Leg
ends occurs this sample of his skill in that
way:
'The poor little page too himself got no quarter but
Was served the same way
And was found the next day
With his heels in the air. and his head in the water
butt"
Hoods Nocturnal Sketch" which he describes
as attempt to write blank verse in rhyme. !"
is probably we'll known to a good many readers
though others may never have seen it:
"Even is come. and from the dark park hark,
The signal of the setting sun--one gun!
And six is sounding from the chime-prirne time
TO go and see the Drury-lane Dane sain-
Or hear Othello's jealous doubt spout out"
Quite as novel as this and funnier, is Punch's
Poetry on an Improved Principle" in which the
final word of couplet is spelled out and the
rhyme is made by the sound OF the last letter:
"On going forth last night, friend to see.
l met man by trade sn-o-b
Keeling along the path he held his way
'Ho! ho' quoth |; He's drunk <E
Then thus to him Were it not better far
You little s-o-b-e-rl
Twere happier for your family, guess
Than playing of such rum rigs"
Punch's Song for a Catarrh" is very funny
1t is supposed to be the utterance of lover with
his nose stopped up by bad cold:
!. '.Her sbiles oil others beab their light
Her frowls all my owl.
I've but ole burthel to my solg,
Her frowls are all my owl"
The substitution of 'l' for IN" and .by for
''m' is pretty close imitation of speech clipped
by closestuffed air passages.
Dean Swift was not above little ingenious
''fooling' in rhymes Here is sample of his
English in Latin words:
90 Mare, eva 81 forme:
Eorme tonitru;
/ ambecum as amandum,
O, let Hymen promptu;
Mihi is yetas an se
AS humane erebi;
o. let mecum, marito to-
I'm ato hata ri