The Chaos

"The Chaos" (/ðə keɪ(j)ɒs/) is a humorous poem by Gerard Nolst Trenité that highlights irregular spelling and irregular pronunciation in English.

Originally published in 1920, the poem evolved through time, with Trenité adding verses. It also acquired the status of a meme that was copied and passed around by English language learners.

The original version consisted of 146-lines; the last "full" 274 version consisted of 274 lines

There are various videos on YouTube of people reading it, e.g. in nice Received Pronunciation or General American

The start of the text (to give an idea of its nature):

Text	IPA
Dearest creature in Creation, Studying English pronunciation, ⁠I will teach you in my verse ⁠Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.	/ˈdɪərəst 'kri:tʃər ɪn kri:'eɪʃən 'stʌdɪɪŋ(g) 'ɪŋ(g)lɪʃ prəˌnʌnsɪˈəɪʃən ˈaɪ wɪl ˈti:ʧ ju: ɪn maɪ ˈvɜ:s ˈsaʊndz ˈlaɪk ˈkɔ:ps ˈkɔ: ˈhɔ:s ənd ˈwɜ:s/