• Author: Pliny
• Editor: B-6591
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume 2
• Page Number:
• Date: 7 16 1913
• Tags:
• poetry
• riddle

WITH THE POETS SOME LANGUAGE We'll begin with a box, but the plural is boxes, But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes; Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese, Yet the plural of mouse, should never be meese; If the plural of man is always called men, Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen? If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet, And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet ? If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth. Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth ? If the singular is this, and the plural is these, Should the plural of kiss be nicknamed keese ? Then one may be that, and three would be those, Yet hat in the plural would never be hose, And the plural of cat, is cats, not cose. We speak of a brother, and also of bretheren, But tho' we say mother, we never say methern. The masculine pronouns are he, his and him, But imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim. So the English, I think, you all will agree, Is the dod-rottish language, you ever did see. —Pliny.