read an English Pronouciation Poem

When the English tongue we speak,
Why does break not rhyme with weak?
Won't you tell me why it's true
We say sew, but also few?
And the maker of a verse
Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?
Beard is not the same as heard.
Cord is different from word,
Cow is cow, but low is low,
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of hose and dose and lose,
And think of loose and yet of choose,
Think of comb and tomb and bomb,
Doll and roll
and home and some.
And since pay is rhymed with say,
Why not paid with said, I pray?
Think of blood and food and good;
Rhyme them all I wish I could.
Why is it done, but gone and lone?
Is there any reason known?
To sum up, it seems to me
That sounds and letters don't agree.


taken from
American Headway 4 workbook
John and Liz Soars
Sylvia Wheeldon
Oxford Press