Rhyme is very much
associated with poetry. Rhyme is a way of speaking or writing that repeats a
sound, usually at the end of a line, and the mind knows that the sounds go
together. It's meant for the ear to catch these.
There are various kinds of rhyme: (1) perfect and imperfect
rhyme, (2) masculine and feminine rhyme, and (3) internal and end rhyme.
In perfect rhyme, an accented vowel in one word agrees with an accented
vowel in another word or more, and these vowels are followed by the same
sound. The sounds before them, however, differ. Thus, in the words "spoken"
and "broken," you have an "s" and a "b" differing in sound, but you have an
"o" sound followed by a "ken" sound that agree. The same is true of the word
for a watery drop from the eye, a tear, and dear.
In imperfect rhyme there's
an element or more of the perfect rhyme lacking. It's somewhat of a sight
thing. Thus, in "mother" and "father," the
"ther" sounds are alike, but the
vowels that precede them are
not. However, "mother" and "brother" are not
imperfect rhymes because the "o" sounds are alike. They are perfect rhymes.
In masculine and feminine rhyme
they have more than one
syllable, but the
difference is where the emphasis is
placed. In masculine rhyme, the emphasis is on the final syllable;
thus, compose and repose. In feminine rhyme
the final syllable
is unstressed with the emphasis coming before it, as in
beauty
and duty.
With regard to internal rhyme and
end rhyme, it's not how the words are formed, but their position in the
line. Internal rhyme
is within the line, and end rhyme is at the end. Thus:
I saw a little boat, afloat upon the bay,
I saw it hoist its sail, then turn and sail away...
You can also have a word within a line, rhyme with an
end word, as in the lines
from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven":
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered
weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of for-
gotten lore―
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there
came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my
chamber door.
" 'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my
chamber door―
Only this and nothing more."
It's possible to formulate a rhyme by putting a couple of words together
to rhyme with another word. Thus, from a "A Sauk Comes to Visit":
He said
something, I could hear it,
In a tongue I knew was Sauk;
He asked of God, Great Spirit
To bless the lake Blackhawk:
I
believe it's also possible to have more than one
word form a rhyme in scattered words in close order. Thus, from the epilogue
of
the poem, "The Tilma" (about Our Lady of Guadalupe and
St. Juan
Diego), you have these lines in the second stanza:
As she steps upon the
shadow of sin
And crushes the serpent and
woe
we're in!
Even
though there's a syllable between the rhyming elements,
if the ear can pick
up on it, I believe it's usable rhyme. The ear can hear the "o"
sound in the last syllable of "shadow" even though it isn't accented
like the rhyming word "woe."
Another
example of rhyme, from "The Piers of Stone," is the double rhyme wherein two
lines rhyme with one another twice:
The views of lake and shore (The views
| of lake | and
shore)
And the hues of sky up o'er (And the hues | of
sky | up o'er)
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Site Last Updated on 10/23/06