CORRESPONDENCE 305 



Qui procul hinc, the legend's writ — 



The frontier-grave lies far away — 

 Qui ante diem periit, 



Sed miles, sed pro patria. 



What, moreover, is wrong in the rhyming of " away " with 



"patria," unless the writer contends either that " away " is 



correctly pronounced as " awy," or that " patria " (in the 



ablative case) should be sounded as " patrier " ? 



I agree with the author of this " Note " that " poor Science 



lives in the kitchen like Cinderella " ; but I don't think that 



his attribution of her domicile to the death of Poetry is 



likely to expedite her enfranchisement. For Poetry in England 



isn't dead. 



Your obedient servant, 



H. Bryan Donkin. 

 London, July 21, 1916. 



Reply 



Sir, — Are not these elementary matters of text-book phonetics ? The first and 

 second a in the ablative patria were probably the short and long a of modern 

 Italian, Spanish, French, German, etc. — somewhat like the first and second a in 

 tnamd and papd. The ay in away is really the diphthong correctly spelt in veil, 

 which cannot possibly rhyme with the last syllable of patria, properly pronounced. 

 Even the first a in patria is often wrongly given the sound of a in cat, as pro- 

 nounced in what are called the " cockney dialects " of English to distinguish them 

 from some north-country and Scottish dialects (in which I have heard cat pro- 

 nounced nearly as a Londoner would pronounce cart).. The ablative of patria 

 was certainly never sounded either pat-rier or pat-Hay. Sir Bryan Donkin's 

 argument appears to be that we are justified in adopting a wrong course if it 

 is easy and pleasant. The following passage, however (which I have not seen 

 quoted before), shows what Milton thought on the matter. Thomas Ellwood 

 describes in his autobiography how when he read Latin books to Milton in the 

 days of his blindness, "At my first reading to him, observing that I used the 

 English pronunciation, he told me, if I would have the benefit of the Latin tongue, 

 not only to read and understand Latin authors, but to converse with foreigners, 

 either abroad or at home, I must learn the foreign pronunciation. To this I con- 

 senting, he instructed me how to sound the vowels ; so different from the common 

 pronunciation used by the English, who speak Anglice their Latin, that . . . the 

 Latin thus spoken seemed as different from that which was delivered, as the 

 English generally speak it, as if it were another language." Probably Milton's 

 aesthetic sense in versification was better than that of most of us. Regarding the 

 survival of poetry in England, we may doubt whether, excepting reprints of 

 classical works, sold chiefly for prizes and presents, and " topical verses," as many 

 as five thousand books of poetry are disposed of annually to the forty odd millions 

 of people in the country. 



Yours faithfully, 



The Writer of the Note. 



