The Chaos

" The Chaos " ( Chaos ) is an English poem which demonstrates the irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation.

History

The poem was by the Dutch language teacher Gerard Nolst Trenité (1870 - 1946) written and first appeared as an appendix to his book " Drop Your Foreign Accent: Engelsche uitspraakoefeningen ". It included then 146 lines of verse, but by 1992 /93 ( ie, decades after his death) extended the Spelling Society, the poem up to 274 lines of verse, bringing the total of 800 problem cases of the English language.

Content

The poem begins with the following verses:

Dedication

The said in the introductory verse " most expensive creature of creation" ( " dearest creature in creation ) seems the French Susanne Delacruix from Paris to have been dedicated to an older copy of this poem, and that is directly addressed in the fifth line of verse as Susy.