THE HEART'S-EASE

OR

GRAMMAR IN VERSE.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

OUR language is our mother tongue;
To use it properly ere long,

This grammar teaches you.

Now grammar teaches-What d'you say?

To speak our language properly,

And spell and write it too.

Into how many parts is it divided?

It is divided into four.

These parts you have not heard before.

The first's Orthography;

Then Etymology and Syntax;

(These long big words look so like intakes); The last part's Prosody.

A

You cannot learn them all at once,
But part by part we shall announce,
And properly arrange.

The first part that we hear about
Is what? Orthography, no doubt;
Its name we cannot change.

ORTHOGRAPHY.

Orthography is always found
Giving the letters all a sound,
And making words of each.

A diphthong this-a triphthong that;
Their forms and uses; this is what
Orthography can teach.

Some words are long, and some are short, With vowels, diphthongs, and what not, Made from the Alphabet.

The vowels a, e, i, o, u,

Besides the other letters too.

B, c, d, f, g, h, i, k,

L, m, n, p, q, r, s, t,

V, x, z,-that's them all.

Now altogether?

Twenty-six,

When consonants and vowels mix,

The big ones and the small.

DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONGS.

But what's the meaning of a diphthong?
Two vowels one sound. And now a triphthong?
Three; such as e, a, u,

See e, a, u, in this word beau;

And here's another, portmanteau ;

Or diphthong oo, in too.

ON SYLLABLES.

A syllable ;-now what is that?
A little word, or else a part.
Thus Pat-er-nos-ter Row.

Now Pat's a syllable; then er ;
Nos is another; so is ter;

And Row is one, you know.

A monosyllable? Is a word of one syllable.
A dissyllable? A word of two syllables.
A trissyllable? A word of three syllables.

A polysyllable? Is a word of four or more syllables.

Mono means one; and dis means two;

Then tris means three; by poly you

Mean four, or many more.

En-chant-ing? A trissyllable;
And tea-cup? A dissyllable;
Cir-cum-fer-ence has four.

Well, 'tis a polysyllable;

And fun? A monosyllable,

For it has only one.

I'm sure you like your grammar well,

And you will let me hear tell

All these before I'm done.

you

Pulse, Pine, Poor,

Breadth, Length, Strength. Charm-ing, Glas-gow.

Fan-cy,

For-mer,