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.