silly

[marnanel]

Praise to the Lord, who created both Geordies and Scousers!
Praise him for making thy housecats such excellent mousers!
He in his care
When thou hast nothing to wear
Sendeth thee new pairs of trousers.

(ref)

Comments

[rho]

Deliberate TS Elliot homage in rhyming mousers and trousers, or independent invention?

[marnanel]

Independent; where does Eliot use it? Somewhere in Old Possum, I assume?

[rho]

Indeed. Bustopher Jones, specifically. I suspected it was independent, but it's such an unusual rhyme that that was the first thing I thought of.

[pne]

Do "Scousers" and "mousers" have /z/ in the middle, then? I would have expected /s/ for both. But then I've never heard either one spoken.

[marnanel]

No, both are /s/— this is pretty much what amused me about it.