I have an Italian language partner who speaks excellent English with almost no [Italian] accent, who asked me if there were any pronunciation corrections I could suggest to her.

One of the very few that I could find was the way in which she transferred to English the Italian 's', usually pronounced as 'z' when a single s, even when it is the first letter of a word.

So I have put my poetic skill to work.

It has come to my attention

to my discerning ear

that there are italiani

who know not what they fear

who seem not to distinguish

the hiss of serpent snake

from the buzzing bumble bees,

when in English these sounds take

a distinct pronunciation

which depends upon the word

in which the hiss or buzzes

take their place so they be heard

When found at the beginning

of any English word

an 's' is always hissing

while not so if it comes third

And likewise when it's second

as in 'is', 'as', 'use' and 'does'

the 's' calls up the bumble bees

and gives the sound its buzz

When it comes in at the ending

to give us more than one,

the 's' denoting plural -

like buzzing, that is done

so hiss at the beginning

and buzz off at the end

and in between you learn the rules

for each new word, my friend.