Lawless Times Poem by Douglas Scotney

If you rhymed 'quaynte' with 'quaynte'
in Chaucer's time,
you apparently weren't benched
if one meant 'strange' and the other meant 'quenched'.

For a rhyme for 'he prayed'
you could say 'he sayed';
for 'sayed' you could probably say 'said'.
I guess you could rhyme 'prayed' with 'bread'
and say 'afraid' 'a-fred'.

'My knee' was 'my knowe',
'knees' was 'knowes',
and if it sounded like heaven,
a voice was a 'blisful stevene'.

'To learn' back then was 'to leere',
'matter' was 'mateere',
and in The Prioresses Tale,
I have just espied,
for 'said' said 'seide'.