When my grandmother died, we found this poem by Isabel Smythe among all of the birthday and Christmas cards in my grandfather’s old smoke stand.
This year – I firmly made a vow
I’m going to learn to spell.
I’ve studied phonics very hard.
Results will surely tell.
“A little bird sat on a bough
And underneath there stood a cough.”
That doesn’t look just right somehow.
I guess I should have spelled it cou.
“I thought I heard a distant cough
But when I listened, it shut outh.”
Oh, dear I think my spelling’s awf.
I guess I meant I hard a coff.
“To bake a pizza – take some dough
And let it rise, but very slough.”
That doesn’t look just right, I know.
I guess on that I sutbbeed my tow.
“My father says down in the slough
The very largest soybeans grough.”
Perhaps he means, “The obvious cloo
To better crops, is soil that’s nue.”
“Cheap meat is often ver tough.
We seldom like to eat the stough.”
I’m all confused – this spelling’s ruff.
I guess I’ve studied long enuph.
