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1920 poem written by Gerard Nolst Trenité"The Chaos" is a poem demonstrating the irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation. Written byDutchwriter, traveller, and teacherGerard Nolst Trenité(1870–1946) under thepseudonymof Charivarius, it includes about 800 examples of irregular spelling. The first version of 146 lines of text appeared in an appendix to the author's 1920 textbookDrop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen, but "the most complete and authoritative version ever likely to emerge", published by theSpelling Societyin 1993–94, has 274 lines.[1]To demonstrate the flavour of the poem, the opening lines are:DearestcreatureinCreation,Studying English pronunciation,I will teach you in my verseSounds likecorpse,corps,horseandworse.and the closing lines are:Finally: which rhymes with "enough,"Though,through,plough,cough,hough, ortough?Hiccoughhas the sound of "cup"......My advice is—give it up!These lines are set out as in the author's version, with alternate couplets indented and the problematic words italicised.[1]Partial text[edit]DearestcreatureinCreation,Studying English pronunciation,I will teach you in my verseSounds likecorpse,corps,horseandworse.It will keep you,Susy,busy,Make yourheadwithheatgrow dizzy;Tearin eye your dress you'lltear.So shall I! Oh, hear myprayer,Pray, console your loving poet,Make my coat looknew, dear,sewit?Just compareheart,beardandheard,Diesanddiet,lordandword,Swordandsward,retainandBritain,(Mind the latter, how it's written!)Madehas not the sound ofbade,Say—said, pay—paid,laid, butplaid.Now I surely will notplagueyouWith such words asvagueandague,But be careful how you speak,Saybreak,steak, butbleakandstreak,Previous,precious;fuchsia,via;Pipe,snipe,recipeandchoir,Cloven,oven;howandlow;Script,receipt;shoe,poem,toe,Hear me say devoid of trickery,daughter,laughter, andTerpsichore,Dedication[edit]A mimeographed version of the poem in Harry Cohen's possession is dedicated to "Miss Susanne Delacruix, Paris", who probably was one of Nolst Trenité's students.[2]The author addressed her as "dearest creature in creation" in the first line, and later as "Susy" in line 5.See also[edit]References[edit]External links[edit]