Don, I don't remember all the lines, but there's a "mother goose" rhyme (though its true origin may be somewhere else) that starts out:

A was an Apple Pie
B bit it
C cut it
D dealt it
E "et" it

...
And it ends with

X,Y,Z and ampersand (&)
All wished for a piece in hand.

So I suppose, that, if you do insist on calling Z 'zed,' there are ways to steal, beg or borrow a closing rhyme.

Nigel --

This makes Psalm 119 a very early alphabetical acrostic.

Fascinating. And that's part of why I'm interested in this question...

I mean, having a fixed specific alphabetic order is very useful and practical in this age of telephone directories, dictionaries, and governmental land deed offices.

But what purpose did alphabetic order have when most of the culture was oral, and the written alphabet was reserved for priests and magic-workers? ...There's a reason we calling "spelling," after all.