Usage of "'d" in nursery rhyme

[Nessie]

Hi,
Please have a look at this nursery rhyme:

Minnie and Winnie
Slept in a shell
Sleep, little ladies!
And they slept well

Pink was the shell within,
Silver without
Sounds of the great sea
Wander'd about

Sleep, little ladies!
Wake not soon!
Echo on echo
Dies to the moon

Two bright stars
Peep'd into the shell
What are they dreaming of
Who can tell?

Started a green linnet
Out of the croft
Wake, little ladies,
The sun is aloft

=> Do the "'d"'s above stand for "-ing"?
Thank you very much
Nessie.
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:(... something we never have again, I know... I guess I really really know.. :(

Sorry seems to be the hardest word...

[Yankee]

Hi Nessie

No, the writer simply omitted the letter E.
.
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[Daemon99]

[Lost_Soul]

I think it is because the letter "e" is mute in those words.
You say "wanded", "pikd", "pipd".

On the other hand, in some words the letter "e" is not mute, as in "selected", "created".

[Yankee]

.
The omission of the letter E may simply reflect Tennyson's interest in and support of spelling reform in English.
.
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Lost_Soul]

Now that I think about it, in the company where I'm currently employed, people use the word "fixed" to describe bugs that are taken care of, and when some of them pronounce it, they don't omit the letter "e", and say it "fixeeed". Hearing this abhorrence never fails to make my hackles rise :evil:

[Alan]

Hi,

It is a poetic device to remove the 'e' so that the 'ed' isn't stressed. The classic line showing this is in Wordsworth's poem Daffodils:

[Yankee]

Hi Alan

Do you happen to know whether the -ed in 'wandered' would have otherwise been pronounced as a separate syllable back in Wordsworth's day?
.
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Alan]

Hi,

Sorry but I can't help you there.

Alan
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[MrPedantic]

I think Wordsworth and his contemporaries would have pronounced the "-ed" termination much the same as we do, in their everyday English. Even in the 1590s, Spenser (for instance) omits the "e" in most past tense forms (e.g."arrayd" for "arrayed"); where he does include it, it signifies that the "-ed" is to be pronounced as a separate syllable, usually for metrical reasons.

(It seems the "-èd" pronunciation lingered as a poetic licence, long after it had disappeared from ordinary speech. Thus the function of the form peep'd is to remove any doubt on the reader's part as to whether the poet intended to avail himself of that poetic licence.)

MrP

[Yankee]

Thanks, MrP. That's interesting.

I had noticed that Tennyson seemed to regularly use 'd rather than the -ed ending, and I'd never thought of his usage of this poetic device ('d) as being something that would actually alter pronunciation (not in his day or today). Thanks for the history of the use of 'd.
.
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Nessie]

So when "ed" is replaced with "'d", we pronounce the verb as its original form?
_________________
:(... something we never have again, I know... I guess I really really know.. :(

Sorry seems to be the hardest word...

[Alan]

Hi Nessie,

As I have already said above and as has been repeated rather more verbosely above, the removal of the 'e' is to indicate in the poetic line that the 'ed' is not separately stressed. In other words 'yes' the pronunciation of 'd would be as if it were 'ed' in a line of prose.

Alan

I hope you are not bewilder'd!
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[Yankee]

.
In other words, Nessie, the word wander'd should be pronounced exactly the same as wandered -- so that it rhymes with 'bird'. :wink:
.
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Nessie]

Please excuse me for my dumbness, Alan and Amy...

So can we use "want'd"?
Many thanks once again.
Nessie.
_________________
:(... something we never have again, I know... I guess I really really know.. :(

Sorry seems to be the hardest word...