Literary studies

The fortieth entry is o esquema rimático, and the English word at its centre carries a spelling that no ear ever produced. Portuguese writes a rima plainly. English wrote it plainly too: the older form is « rime », and it held so long that Coleridge could still head a ballad of 1798 « The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ». The « h » was put in by learned writers who wanted the page to show the word next to the Latin rhythmus. Nothing in the mouth moved; only the look of it changed. Three things follow. The shape Portuguese kept is now hidden — « rhyme » does not resemble a rima at all, and a reader who covers the « h » gets it back at once. The new spelling walked into an existing « rime », the white frost on a branch, so a single letter is all that keeps two unrelated words apart. And « rhyme » now looks on the page like a close relation of « rhythm » while sounding nothing like it: a spelling that argues with the ear instead of recording it.