The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-10-29
The Unrllyrnable Sixty.

When ANDREW Lang, after painstakny
resehrch, announced that there We're
sixty words in the English language to
which no rhymes existed he issued,
whether he meant to or not deadly
def to the newspaper poets Of America.
That wns dare which no selfs5respect.
ing song-hird of journalism should be
expected to take All over the land we
can picture them. upon hearing the
news, as sharpening their pencils rather
denantly, grimly resolved to show it to
Andrew by exposing the hopeless mar
rowness Of his rhyming range. 1t
would not surprise us at all If here and
there one more agile and more ambitious
| than the rest, did not undertake to
rhyme the entire sixty into single bal
lad. No doubt 1t could be done to the
satisfaction Of all but the excessively
hypercritical despite so high an author
ity to the contrary. Mr.. Langs sixty
rhymeless ones are given in his
"Rhymcr's Lexicon" and we have to
thank an Industrious writer on the
Kansas City Journal for looking them
out for us. Here they are. 81.
Aitch, alb, amongst, avcnge, ybilge
bourn, breadth, brusque, bulb. conch,
cnlm, cusp. depth, doth, eighth fifth,
film, forge, forth. fugue. GOLF hemp
lounge. mauve, month, morsue, mourned,
mouth, ninth. obige, of. pearl, pint
porch, pork. poulp, prestige. puss, re-
cumb, sauce, scare, scarf, sixth, spoilt
swoln sylph, tenth. torsk, twelfth. I'M
plagued, volt, warmth, wasp, wharves
width with. wolf, wolves
This is the assortment Of puzzles which
has put our more cphemeral songsters
on their mettlc But some OF them. sure
~, are In the reach Of lis mere plodders
at whose birth the muse was conspicu-
ously absent. AS for the second OF them.
"Alb," the little monosyllable happens
not to be in our everyday vocabulary,
and we don't care whether there is a
rhyme to 1T or not Amongst" however.
falls an easy victim to the past preteritc
tense of the verb ito sing second per-
sonnt singular Thus, In the poets beau
tiful and familiar couplet:
flushed was tho mighty crowd amongst
The which thou sadly stood'st AMI
sungst.
| III INV IIlhhhSi, 'NNShSNif p'i- i'')
| have no other rhyme than the unfair
one revenge" but "avengest" makes
an admirable balance to the first Of
| those two distinguished jute warriors,
| Messrs Hengist and IIorsa. We skip
cveral, for our own good reasons and
land upon doth" which unless you
insist on pronouncing It "duth," pairs NICE
| - It,t1., rrt.
hut 'flmy" Is good newspaper rhyme
for xii me-" pill me-" and the like.
A lsper would give "of- courlh" as emil
nently suitable for forth" but we ad.
NIT that This would be in the nature of
n audible, AS for hemp" the chairman
of the Republican State Committee fur,
nishes all the rhyme that We personally
(, need.
Lounge "mauvc' nnd month we
| freely hand over 10 poeasters of the
nimbler nut Mouth ana South" how
ever, suit us spcndldly, as do "morgue''
and "dawg," and entwinth'' and
| ninth" As to this latter brace. we need
only recall the famous couplet of lbs
bard. which no doubt every Richmond
school girl already knows by heart:
He who liyeth over sinful, in his sir
thereby fntwin',h
All his after generations from the mex
one To the ninth.
Then there Is 'oblige," which gould nsl
no worthier note than that sterlin
American cognomen, life" handy 70
Elijah. So many rhymes come TO one
mind for pearl that we imagine II
inclusion must have been accidental. a
for pint We are entirely satisfied wit
"wbyn't," as IN The phrase. "whyn't 80
goN We regard 1t as a hopeless errol
as may have been already evident, to y
foolishly exae.Ing IN matters Of rhyme
: "Recumb" has its .plumb," 'sance" ha
lts moss and scare has it's dozen:
? "Nepenthe,' II YOU are wiling to PRO
, ppunce II lepienlly, ~ all risht 20