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Polly put the
kettle on . . .
| Polly,
put the kettle on.
Polly, put the kettle on. Polly, put the kettle on. We'll all have tea. Sukey, take it off again.
|
When this nursery rhyme was first composed, it really was a rhyme: the vowel in "tea" had risen from ME e to e. But that vowel rose again to i, while the diphthong in away stayed put. |
This pronunciation appears throughout the poetry of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Check out Alexander Pope, from Rape of the Lock, III, 7-8 (written 1714).
| Here Thou, great
Anna! whom three Realms obey,
Dost sometimes Counsel take--and sometimes Tea. |
Or John Dryden's sea, from Aeneis, V 1084-6 (translated 1697).
| He calls to
raise the Masts, the Sheats display;
The Chearful Crew with diligence obey; They scud before the Wind, and sail in open Sea. |
Or Jonathan Swift's creature, from "Strephon and Chloe," 19-20 (written 1731).
| You'd swear
that so divine a Creature
Felt no Necessities of Nature. |
