One of the most important ways that cunning linguists and budding etymologists interested in orthoepy can determine the way in which words used to be pronounced, is through the use of what words used to rhyme. It’s true. You can look at old hymns and songs and poems and look at words that were obviously in some sort of rhyme scheme, and yet really do not rhyme at all! At least not anymore. You see, language changes, accents change, and pronunciation changes as well. Sometimes you can use spelling to tell how words used to be pronounced, as in the word “February.” How many people actually say “Feb-Roo-Airy” anymore? Just nerds like myself. Most of us say “Feb-YOO-Airy” and are perfectly pleased with ourselves. The spelling remains to tell us how it was once universally pronounced. But I’m not here to talk about spelling; I’m hear to talk about rhyme.
Did you know that “love” and “move” used to rhyme? It’s true! And how do we know this? We know this because poetry from centuries prior rhyme these two words all the time! Did you know that “said” used to be pronounced “Say’d” instead of “Sed”? Well, it did, and we know this because of how many times it was rhymed with words like “paid” and “made” and “Miami-Dade.” Ancient poetry is a marvelous tool for learning about words. However, and I wish I did not have to point this out, we are no longer in ancient times.
This past Sunday we sang a hymn in church which contained some questionable rhymes. This is a fairly common occurrence actually, since many of the hymns we sing were written hundreds of years ago. For instance one might take the phrase “our hope for years to come,” and then match it with “and our eternal home.” Well, “come” and “home” do not rhyme, technically, and yet they did once, and since that hymn text was written in 1719 by Issac Watts, we accept the antique grammar and move on. But that is not the hymn we sang on Sunday.
No, on Sunday we sang the line “Let your acceptance change us, so that we may be moved in living situations to do the truth in love.” Now, there are several problems with that sentence. First: What? What does that even mean? What is a “living situation?” Have you ever been in a non-living situation? I feel like most situations that I encounter involve me being alive. Why even bring that up? And then, when we are in these very specific situations that necessitate living, we are supposed to “do the truth.” How do you do the truth? Sounds like a Nike slogan. Do you have love? Is there truth in it? Well then just do it. Do that truth. Do the truth that is in the love. I mean, I sort of get the sentiment, but on the other hand I have no idea what any of that means. But that’s not even the worst part! The worst part is that the author of this text is clearly trying to rhyme the word “moved” with the word “love!” And this text was not written 300 years ago. It was written in 1974.
As someone who was born in the seventies, I feel confident to declare that the word “moved” did not rhyme with the word “love” during that historical epoch. Of course that whole song is filled with questionable rhymes. Some are good, like “some” and “become,” or “heart” and “art,” but others, like the one I just mentioned along with “on” and “one,” and “believe” and “live,” are quite suspect. And I don’t mean to pick on this fine song which really does have a nice message in it, because it is not the only offender. Many moderns hymns throw modern pronunciation to the wind when concocting rhyme schemes.
I get it. You read the other hymns, they use old language, you want to write a new hymn, you want it to fit in and not get picked on by the other hymns, so you ancient it up a little bit. This is not okay. Those words do not rhyme anymore. We’re not going to let it slide for you just because the old hymns got to do it. There are certain words we don’t use much these days, because they have a new meaning now. If you wrote a hymn called “Jesus Makes Me So Gay,” I would not care that old hymns use the word “gay” in its original meaning of happy. It has a new meaning now. You can’t use the old one indiscriminately. Nobody is naming their kids “Dick” anymore. But it is okay that people over 50 are called “Dick.” Get it? So should it be with rhyming.
Hymn-writers, lyricists, authors, and editors alike, please hear my plea. Do not attempt to rhyme “love” with “move.” Do not think for an instant that “come” still rhymes with “home,” or that “blood” still rhymes with “food.” These things may have been true once, but they are true no longer. And nostalgia is no excuse for bad grammar. Srsly.