WHY OH WHY OH WHY?
Who in their right mind would write
A new word with a silent letter?
Those early lexicographers
Ought to have known better.
Generations of schoolkids have suffered
Hours and hours of pain,
Spelling silly words wrong
And having to try them again.
Now I am in my eighties
And my IQ’s pretty high.
But I still look at spellings
And have to wonder why.
Perhaps we should have a rethink
And look at words alphabetically.
It would be so much simpler
To pronounce them all phonetically.
But we shouldn’t take things too seriously,
So I’ll finish with a laugh.
Every psychologist knows, of course,
That the ‘p’ is silent, as in bath!
3rd August 2026
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