[John Whitworth]

As Ann says. It's French, and hasn't been Anglicized like Paris or cul-de-sac (do Americans say cul-de-sac?) so it should be pronounced the French way, more or less. I would rhyme it with 'garb' and 'bicarb'.

Janry, Febry...

[Michael Cantor]

Anybody who went to New York City public schools in the forties was force-fed awful rhymed lyrics to such chestnuts as Danse Macabre, in order to provide us with a bit of couth. But I still remember:

The rooster crows at dawn you know,
telling the skeletons where to go.
Danse Macabre by Sant-Saens...

and Macabre was ma-CAB-re. Mrs. Bousefield insisted on it.

(I am also available for readings of Morning was dawning and Peer Gynt was yawning, and Greig was washing his face.. and the lovely tone poem Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffman, written by Offenbach and others. The shit that stays with you for seventy years or so absolutely amazes me.)

[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

The French way.

Duncan

[Ann Drysdale]

But John, if you rhyme it with garb you are not saying it the French way. There is no "more or less" - is it is or is it ain't?

And, Michael, did your teacher give Saint-Saëns his final, audible "s"?

.

[Janice D. Soderling]

It seems unfair to ask everyone to fumble in the dark. So here is the final couplet and if it disqualifies me at the end-staion so be it. I'll just write another poem.

But one remains to bend the will.
Danse macabre will move us still.

From the context preceding these lines, the reader will realize (I hope) that the aha! is that an aforementioned dance continues albeit not as motion but as stillness. The couplet itself isn't spectacular but in the light of what precedes it, I think it is rather neat (well, it is my own child so I would think that wouldn't I) UNLESS the majority of readers stumbles at the crucial point, the finish line which is also the punch line.

You see by now that I'm hoping for a clear signal for " ma caaab" in this English text. I myself, ignorant and mostly self-taught and totally in awe of native and sundry fluent speakers, pronounce it with a (probably affected) slight R at the end, like "sacre" in Sacré-Cœur.

When I double-checked the pronouncing dictionaries, asking "how do you pronounce danse macabre?" I found no entry for the entire term, only for "macabre" and for that a range of pronunciations was given in the various pronouncing aids/dictionaries.

Thanks Ann (again), Duncan, Michael, John, Bill (again) for casting your votes.

Thanks all, for engaging in this thorny problem. I fully enjoyed the anecdotes and comments.

[Shaun J. Russell]

The French way for me as well. Exactly like Julie says, really -- I pronounce the "ruh," but only slightly. I do the same with "raison d'etre" -- one of my poems uses it as an end rhyme for "yet," but when I read it aloud, the "ruh" is suggested, at least.

I grew up in Canada and studied a bit of French, so maybe that has something to do with it.

[Brian Allgar]

Janice, I don't think you need to worry. Either pronunciation (I would naturally favour the French) will work, as the '-re' at the end of 'macabre' is too vestigial to count as a syllable.

[W.F. Lantry]

Originally Posted by Janice D. Soderling

But one remains to bend the will.
Danse macabre will move us still.

Tougher and tougher. This sounds good to my ear.

As for "the french way": in my experience of the language, the ending - re - is there, but one swallows it. In this case, when I just read it out, I found myself eliding the r into the w of 'will.' So the scansion works. But I'm odd.

Thanks,

Bill

[Susan McLean]

Janice, the pronunciation isn't an issue. Like most of the others, I barely pronounce the "-re" at the end of "macabre," but whether I pronounce it or not, the meter still works because everyone knows where to put the stresses in the line, and you have the right number of stresses. Slight variations in the meter make it more interesting, not less so.

Susan

[Douglas G. Brown]

When I read this aloud, I say "macabre" in 2 syllables, since it just naturally sort of blends in with the following "will".

It sounds just fine to me, and I think most people will see it this way, even if they normally say macabre in three syllables.

But, who am I to say? I pronounce "cul de sac" as "dead-end street", just to annoy snooty real estate brokers.

It would be fun to see the rest of your poem.