tiger tiger

[lynette54uk]

how would one pronounce the word symmetry in Blake's poem

[Quizmonster]

'Try' rather than 'tree', as it were, is certainly acceptable - given the rhyme-word is 'eye' - if one's aim is to fulfil the sound-pattern as shown by every other pair of lines in the poem and one is reading it aloud to a young audience. Nevertheless, I would tend to say 'tree' myself without any forced stress on it...ie say the whole word as it is said in everyday ciscumstances.

[heathfield]

This has been controversial ever since he wrote the poem. But most people would just go with the normal pronounciation of 'sim-it-ree' or 'sim-et-ree'. We did, at the teacher's direction at school.

[Quizmonster]

Of course, you could do the exact opposite if you were teaching a class of children in Scotland. There, the word 'eye' is commonly pronounced 'ee' anyway! Consequently, the 'tree' pronunciation of 'symmetry' would work just fine.

[Quizmonster]

Heathfield's response was not there when I started my second reply, so when I said "do the exact opposite" I meant re my own original offering, not his!

[heathfield]

Aye, so you could, QM! ;-)