Later Literature: Rhymes with "Tea"

Literature Home | Chaucer | Shakespeare | Later Literature

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.
Sukey, take it off again.
Sukey, take it off again.
They've all gone away.

 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.
[see Freeborn 175]

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.
[see Pyles and Algeo 173]