Rel. An. Eng. Poet. vol. 1. page 113.
So in a song which seems to have been written in the reign of Henry VIII.
"Where griping grefes the hart would wounde
And doleful dumps the mynde oppresse,
There musicke with her silver sound,
With speed is wont to send redresse."
Ibm. page 165.
Similar rhimes occur in almost every page of modern poetry.
"Warriors she fires with animated sounds,
Pours balm into the bleeding lover's wounds."
Pope.
The fashionable pronunciation of wound destroys the rhime and infringes the rule of analogy; two objections to it which can be removed only by universal practice. Does this practice exist? By no means. One good authority[62] at least, directs to the analogous pronunciation; and another compiler directs to both—the regular and the fashionable. But were woond the universal practice in Great Britain, this should not induce us to lay aside our own practice for a foreign one. There is but a small part, even of the well bred people in this country, who have yet adopted the English mode; and the great body of the people uniformly pursue analogy. The authority of practice therefore, is, in this country, opposed to the innovation. Shall we then relinquish what every man must acknowlege to be right, to embrace the corruptions of a foreign court and stage? Will not the Atlantic ocean, the total separation of America from Great Britain, the pride of an independent nation, the rules of the language, the melody of English poetry, restrain our rage for imitating the errors of foreigners?
But it is said that woond is softer than wound, and therefore more agreeable. Suppose the assertion to be true, will it follow that the softest pronunciation should be preferred?