[mairdie]

Yes, but the Night Before Christmas research shows that there’s a massive difference between what people hear as “right.”

Say the set of words below aloud and feel the difference in your mouth. The first set is what Moore favors over the Henry favored words. Personally, I can’t get my mouth around Moore’s pairs. Noticing that I was moving my mouth six ways to Sunday when reading Moore aloud is how we fell into analyzing phonemes in the first place.

I read aloud everything I write. Rhythm is absolutely crucial in what I write here, as well as what I write for other purposes. Husband often smiles. I wonder if Moore DIDN’T read his work aloud and if Henry did.

Moore Favored Phoneme Pairs in “Saratoga”
T/DH at the
T/F not for
T/S That spoke
Z/W comes we’ll
S/W chance were
Z/T waters to
IY/T we take
D/P and plenteous
S/S fierce soe’er
Z/CH his children

Henry Favored Phoneme Pairs in “Invitation to the Country”

AH/N The nightingale
AH/F The flimsy
AH/S the side
AH/B a bush
AH/K The copses
AH/L the lawn
AH/ the plains
N/AH season of
Z/AO flits o’er
Z/IH gambols in

[Jamestown1630]

That's fascinating; I will have to study your post when I have more time.

"I read aloud everything I write"

That's interesting - I never do, and never have when I've written poetry. What I do is read it over and over and over and OVER; and "hear" it in my "head" ;-)

Writing poetry - or songs, which are poetry, too - was always almost a mystical experience: it was as if one fell into a trance during the process; and when done, there was the product. You realized that you went THROUGH a process, to do it; but you couldn't really remember it.

(Of course, I wasn't a Dante, or a Blake ;-)

[AndyJackson]

Thanks for the eduction Clement Moore - A Trip to Saratoga. My poor education is such that I had never heard of it.