NZBC

My favourite Canadian warmonger Mark Steyn is also an astute music writer. In a typically wide-ranging appreciation of “Waltzing Matilda”, which he reckons would be a better national anthem for Australia than the pathetic “Advance Australia Fair”, he observes that our national anthem rhymes “New Zealand” with “free land”, which is a feminine rhyme.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s unusual in English verse. However, it’s often used in limericks and rapping – in fact there it’s a sign of technical skill. So I dug out The Eminem Show, the only rap album I own (a possibly ironic Christmas present from my sister-in-law), and here’s a bit from “Soldier”:

Full of controversy until I retire my jersey

till the fire inside dies and expires at thirty

and Lord have mercy on any more of these rappers that verse me

and put a curse on authorities in the face of adversity

All pure feminine rhymes. But I'm not volunteering to be the one to tell him.