Rhyme and Other Noises
Jeffrey Wainwright · 2025
I think these lines from a song by Cole Porter (1891–1964) include my favourite rhyme. The lines are blindingly simple but utterly ingenious in the way they manipulate Harris, Plutocrat / pat and then carry the sounds into the brilliant inversion of ‘Harris pat’ and ‘Paris hat’ . The song ‘Always true to you in my fashion’ from Porter’s musical Kiss Me Kate (1948) plays a series of such rhymes: ‘vet/pet’, ‘Tex/checks/sex’ – and it would not be impossible to believe that a less decorous version might have made the Harris word-play yet better by substituting ‘ass’ for ‘cheek’.