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Sunday 12 August 2012

More poetry



Well, light verse perhaps.

This one I wrote soon after I started working for the Alma Mater Society at UBC, when I realized that different people pronounced Alma Mater differently.  Thinking I could resolve this inconsistency, I embarked on some research, only to discover that there was no resolving the problem.  The dictionaries record various pronunciations.

This poem was the result:



Does it Mater?

 Now, would you say that Alma Mater
                    Rhymes with “Later, alligator”?
                    Or should we seek a rhyme with otter
                    When pronouncing Alma Mater?
                    Or maybe choose a rhyme with chatter
                    For our dear old Alma Mater?
                    Chatter, otter, otter, ‘gator--
                    Which one rhymes with Alma Mater?
                    And is it “Al-muh” we should say?
                    Or maybe “Awl-muh” is the way.
                    The whole thing seems like quite a mess--
                    We’ll have to stick to A-M-S.

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