Rhyme, like alliteration (which is sometimes called head rhyme head rhyme) is thought to have originated in pre-literate times as a way of allowing the words of sung odes, lyrics, epics and sagas more easily to be memorised. Whatever its origin, the expectations it sets up in the mind seem deeply embedded in us. Much of poetry is about 'consonance' in the sense of correspondence correspondence: the likeness or congruity of one apparently disparate thing to another. Poetry is concerned with the connections between things, seeing the world in a grain of sand as Blake did in 'Auguries of Innocence', or sensing loss of faith in the ebbing of the tide as Arnold did in 'Dover Beach'. You might say poets are always looking for the wider rhymes rhymes in nature and experience. The Sea 'rhymes' with Time in its relentless flow, its eroding power, its unknowable depth. Hope 'rhymes' with Spring, Death 'rhymes' with Winter. At the level of physical observation, Blood 'rhymes' with Wine, Eyes with Sapphires, Lips with Roses, War with Storms and so on. Those are all stock correspondences which were considered cliches even by Shakespeare's day of course, but the point is this: as pattern-seeking, connection-hungry beings we are always looking for ways in which one thing chimes with another. Metonym, metaphor and simile do this in one way, rhyme, the apparently arbitrary chiming of word sounds, does it in another. Rhyme, as children quickly realise, provides a special kind of satisfaction. It can make us feel, for the space of a poem, that the world is less contingent, less random, more connected, link by link. When used well rhyme can in nature and experience. The Sea 'rhymes' with Time in its relentless flow, its eroding power, its unknowable depth. Hope 'rhymes' with Spring, Death 'rhymes' with Winter. At the level of physical observation, Blood 'rhymes' with Wine, Eyes with Sapphires, Lips with Roses, War with Storms and so on. Those are all stock correspondences which were considered cliches even by Shakespeare's day of course, but the point is this: as pattern-seeking, connection-hungry beings we are always looking for ways in which one thing chimes with another. Metonym, metaphor and simile do this in one way, rhyme, the apparently arbitrary chiming of word sounds, does it in another. Rhyme, as children quickly realise, provides a special kind of satisfaction. It can make us feel, for the space of a poem, that the world is less contingent, less random, more connected, link by link. When used well rhyme can reify reify meaning, it can embody in sound and sight the connections that poets try to make with their wider images and ideas. The Scottish poet and musician Don Paterson puts it this way: meaning, it can embody in sound and sight the connections that poets try to make with their wider images and ideas. The Scottish poet and musician Don Paterson puts it this way: Rhyme always unifies sense [...] it can trick a logic from the shadows where one would not otherwise have existed.
An understanding of rhyme comes to us early in life. One sure way to make young children laugh is to deny them the natural satisfaction of expected end-rhymes, as in this limerick by W. S. Gilbert: There was an old man of St BeesWho was horribly stung by a waspWhen they said: 'Does it hurt?'He replied: 'No it doesn'tIt's a good job it wasn't a hornet.'
We all know of people who are tone-deaf, colour-blind, dyslexic or have no sense of rhythm, smell or taste, but I have never heard of anyone who cannot distinguish and understand rhyme. There may be those who genuinely think that 'bounce' rhymes with 'freak', but I doubt it. I think we can safely say rhyme is understood by all who have language. All except those who were born without hearing of course, for rhyming is principally a question of sound sound.
The Basic Categories of Rhyme End-rhyme s sinternal rhymes While it is possible that before you opened this book you were not too sure about metre, I have no doubt that you have known since childhood exactly what rhyme is. The first poems we meet in life are nursery rhymes rhymes.
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall wallHumpty Dumpty had a great fall fallAll the King's horses and all the King's men menCouldn't put Humpty together again. again.
That famous and deeply tragic four-line verse (or quatrain quatrain) consists of two rhyming couplets rhyming couplets. Here is an example of a ballady kind of quatrain where only the three-stress (second and fourth) lines bear the rhyme words: Mary had a little lambIts fleece was white as snow snowAnd everywhere that Mary wentThe lamb was sure to go go.
In both examples, the rhyme words come at the end of the line: fall/wall, men/again, snow/go fall/wall, men/again, snow/go. This is called END RHYMING END RHYMING.
Little Bo Peep Peep has lost her has lost her sheep sheepAnd doesn't know where to find them find them.Leave them alone alone and they'll come and they'll come home home,Bringing their tails be hind them hind them.Little Bo Peep Peep fell fast fell fast asleep asleepAnd dreamt she heard them bleating bleatingBut when she awoke awoke she found it a she found it a joke jokeFor they were still afleeting afleeting.
Here we have end-rhymes as before but INTERNAL RHYMES INTERNAL RHYMES too, in the four-beat lines: too, in the four-beat lines: Peep/sheep, alone/home, Peep/asleep Peep/sheep, alone/home, Peep/asleep and and awoke/joke awoke/joke. Coleridge used this kind of internal rhyming a great deal in his 'Ancient Mariner': The fair breeze blew blew, the white foam flew flew,The furrow followed free free:We were the first first that ever that ever burst burstInto that silent sea sea.
As did Lewis Caroll in 'The Jabberwocky': He left it dead dead, and with its head headHe went galumphing back.
A rarer form of internal rhyming is the leonine which derives from medieval Latin verse.1 This is found in poems of longer measure where the stressed syllable preceding a caesura rhymes with the last stressed syllable of the line. Tennyson experimented with leonine rhymes in his juvenilia as well as using it in his later poem 'The Revenge': This is found in poems of longer measure where the stressed syllable preceding a caesura rhymes with the last stressed syllable of the line. Tennyson experimented with leonine rhymes in his juvenilia as well as using it in his later poem 'The Revenge': And the stately Spanish men men to their flagship bore him to their flagship bore him then then,Where they laid him by the mast mast, old Sir Richard caught at last last,And they praised him to his face face with their courtly foreign with their courtly foreign grace grace.
I suppose the internal rhyming in 'The Raven' might be considered leonine too, though corvine would be more appropriate...
But the raven, sitting lonely lonely on that placid bust, spoke on that placid bust, spoke only onlyThat one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour outpour.Nothing further then he uttered uttered; not a feather then he fluttered fluttered;Till I scarcely more than muttered muttered, 'Other friends have flown before before;On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before before.'Then the bird said, 'Nevermore.'
Throughout the poem Poe runs a third internal rhyme (here uttered/fluttered uttered/fluttered) into the next line (muttered).
Hopkins employed internal rhyme a great deal, but not in such predictable patterns. He used it to yoke together the stresses in such phrases as dapple-dawn-drawn, stirred for a bird, he cursed at first, fall gall, in a flash at a trumpet-crash, glean-stream dapple-dawn-drawn, stirred for a bird, he cursed at first, fall gall, in a flash at a trumpet-crash, glean-stream and so on. and so on.
Partial Rhymes Partial rhymes: assonance and consonanceeye-rhyme and wrenched rhyme On closer inspection that last internal rhyme from Hopkins is not quite right, is it? Glean Glean and and stream stream do not share the same final consonant. In the third line of 'Little Bo Beep' the do not share the same final consonant. In the third line of 'Little Bo Beep' the alone/home alone/home rhyme is imperfect in the same way: this is rhyme is imperfect in the same way: this is PARTIAL RHYME PARTIAL RHYME, sometimes called SLANT SLANT-rhyme or PARA-RHYME PARA-RHYME.2 In slant-rhyme of the In slant-rhyme of the alone/home, glean/stream alone/home, glean/stream kind, where the vowels match but the consonants do not, the effect is called kind, where the vowels match but the consonants do not, the effect is called ASSONANCE ASSONANCE: as in cup/rub, beat/feed, sob/top, craft/mast cup/rub, beat/feed, sob/top, craft/mast and so on. Hopkins uses and so on. Hopkins uses plough/down, rose/moles, breath/bread, martyr/master plough/down, rose/moles, breath/bread, martyr/master and many others in and many others in internal internal rhymes, but never as end-rhyme. Assonance in end-rhymes is most commonly found in folk ballads, nursery rhymes and other song lyrics, although it was frowned upon (as were all partial rhymes) in Tin Pan Alley and musical theatre. On Broadway it is still considered bad style for a lyricist not to rhyme perfectly. Not so in the world of pop: do you remember the Kim Carnes song 'Bette Davis Eyes'? How's this for assonance? rhymes, but never as end-rhyme. Assonance in end-rhymes is most commonly found in folk ballads, nursery rhymes and other song lyrics, although it was frowned upon (as were all partial rhymes) in Tin Pan Alley and musical theatre. On Broadway it is still considered bad style for a lyricist not to rhyme perfectly. Not so in the world of pop: do you remember the Kim Carnes song 'Bette Davis Eyes'? How's this for assonance?
She's ferociousAnd she knows just knows justWhat it takes to make a pro blush pro blush Yowser! In the sixties the Liverpool School of poets, who were culturally (and indeed personally, through ties of friendship) connected to the Liverpool Sound, were notably fond of assonantal rhyme. Adrian Mitchell, for example, rhymes size size with with five five in his poem 'Fifteen Million Plastic Bags'. The poets you are most likely to find using assonantal slant-rhymes today work in hip-hop and reggae traditions: Here's 'Talking Turkey' by Benjamin Zephaniah. Have fun reading it out a la B.Z. in his poem 'Fifteen Million Plastic Bags'. The poets you are most likely to find using assonantal slant-rhymes today work in hip-hop and reggae traditions: Here's 'Talking Turkey' by Benjamin Zephaniah. Have fun reading it out a la B.Z.
Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmasCos' turkeys just wanna hav funTurkeys are cool, turkeys are wickedAn every turkey has a Mum.Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas,Don't eat it, keep it alive,It could be yu mate, an not on your plateSay, 'Yo! Turkey I'm on your side.'I got lots of friends who are turkeysAn all of dem fear christmas time,Dey wanna enjoy it,dey say humans destroyed itn humans are out of dere mind,Yeah, I got lots of friends who are turkeysDey all hav a right to a life,Not to be caged up an genetically made upBy any farmer an his wife.
You can see that fun/Mum, alive/side, time/mind, enjoy it/destroyed it fun/Mum, alive/side, time/mind, enjoy it/destroyed it and perhaps and perhaps Christmas/wicked Christmas/wicked are all used as rhyming pairs. The final pair are all used as rhyming pairs. The final pair life/wife life/wife constitute the only 'true' rhymes in the poem. Assonantally rhymed poems usually do end best with a full rhyme. constitute the only 'true' rhymes in the poem. Assonantally rhymed poems usually do end best with a full rhyme.
Now let us look at another well-known nursery rhyme: Hickory, dickory, dock dock,The mouse ran up the clock clock.The clock struck one one,The mouse ran down down!Hickory, dickory, dock dock.
The one/down one/down rhyme is partial too, but here the end consonant is the same but the rhyme is partial too, but here the end consonant is the same but the vowels vowels (vowel (vowel sounds sounds) are different. This is called CONSONANCE CONSONANCE: examples would be off/if, plum/calm, mound/bond off/if, plum/calm, mound/bond and so on. Take a look at Philip Larkin's 'Toads': and so on. Take a look at Philip Larkin's 'Toads': Why should I let the toad work workSquat on my life?Can't I use my wit as a pitchforkAnd drive the brute off?Six days of the week it soilsWith its sickening poisonJust for paying a few bills!That's out of proportion.
The whole poem continues for another seven stanzas with loose consonantal para-rhymes of this nature. Emily Dickinson was fond of consonance too. Here is the first stanza of her poem numbered 1179: Of so divine a LossWe enter but the Gain,Indemnity for LonelinessThat such a Bliss has been.
The poet most associated with a systematic mastery of this kind of rhyming is Wilfred Owen, who might be said to be its modern pioneer. Here are the first two stanzas from 'Miners': There was a whispering in my hearth,A sigh of the coal,Grown wistful of a former earthIt might recall.I listened for a tale of leavesAnd smothered ferns;Frond forests; and the low, sly livesBefore the fawns.
Ferns/fawns, lives/leaves and and coal/call coal/call are what you might call are what you might call perfect perfect imperfect rhymes. The different vowels are wrapped in imperfect rhymes. The different vowels are wrapped in identical identical consonants, unlike Larkin's consonants, unlike Larkin's soils/bills soils/bills and and life/off life/off or Dickinson's or Dickinson's gain/been gain/been which are much looser. which are much looser.
In his poem 'Exposure', Owen similarly slant-rhymes war/wire, knive us/nervous, grow/gray, faces/fusses war/wire, knive us/nervous, grow/gray, faces/fusses and many more. His most triumphant achievement with this kind of 'full' partial rhyme is found in the much-loved 'Strange Meeting': and many more. His most triumphant achievement with this kind of 'full' partial rhyme is found in the much-loved 'Strange Meeting': I am the enemy you killed, my friend.I knew you in this dark: for you so frownedYesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.I parried: but my hands were loath and cold.
Here is the complete list of its slant-rhyme pairs:
All (bar one) are couplets, each pair is different andperhaps most importantly of allno perfect perfect rhymes at all. A sudden rhyme like 'taint' and 'saint' would stand out like a bum note. Which is not to say that a mixture of pure and slant-rhyme is rhymes at all. A sudden rhyme like 'taint' and 'saint' would stand out like a bum note. Which is not to say that a mixture of pure and slant-rhyme is always always a bad idea: W. B. Yeats frequently used a mixture of full and partial rhymes. Here is the first stanza of 'Easter 1916', with slant-rhymes in a bad idea: W. B. Yeats frequently used a mixture of full and partial rhymes. Here is the first stanza of 'Easter 1916', with slant-rhymes in bold bold.
I have met them at close of day dayComing with vivid faces facesFrom counter or desk among grey greyEighteenth century houses houses.I have passed with a nod of the head headOr polite meaningless words,Or have lingered awhile and said saidPolite meaningless words,And thought before I had done doneOf a mocking tale or a gibe gibeTo please a companion companionAround the fire at the club club,Being certain that they and I IBut lived where motley is worn worn:All changed, changed utterly utterlyA terrible beauty is born born.
Assonance rhyme is suitable for musical verse, for the vowels (the part the voice sings) stay the same. Consonance rhyme, where the vowels change, clearly works better on the page.
There is a third kind of slant-rhyme which only only works on the page. Cast your eye up to the list of para-rhyme pairs from Owen's 'Strange Meeting'. I said that all works on the page. Cast your eye up to the list of para-rhyme pairs from Owen's 'Strange Meeting'. I said that all bar one bar one were couplets. Do you see the odd group out? were couplets. Do you see the odd group out?
It is the hair/hour/here hair/hour/here group, a triplet not a couplet, but that's not what makes it stands out for our purposes. group, a triplet not a couplet, but that's not what makes it stands out for our purposes. Hair/here Hair/here follows the consonance rule, but follows the consonance rule, but hour hour does not: it does not: it looks looks like a perfect consonance but when read out the 'h' is of course silent. This is a consonantal version of an like a perfect consonance but when read out the 'h' is of course silent. This is a consonantal version of an EYE-RHYME EYE-RHYME, a rhyme which works visually, but not aurally. Here are two examples of more conventional eye-rhymes from Shakespeare's As You Like It As You Like It: Blow, blow thou winter wind windThou art not so unkind unkind...Though thou the waters warp warpThy sting is not so sharp sharp It is common to hear 'wind' pronounced 'wined' when the lines are read or sung, but by no means necessary: hard to do the same thing to make the sharp/warp sharp/warp rhyme, after all. rhyme, after all. Love/prove Love/prove is another commonly found eye-rhyme pair, as in Marlowe's 'Passionate Shepherd to his Love'. is another commonly found eye-rhyme pair, as in Marlowe's 'Passionate Shepherd to his Love'.
Come live with me and be my love loveAnd we will all the pleasures prove. prove.
It is generally held that these may well have been true sound rhymes in Shakespeare's and Marlowe's day. They have certainly been used as eye-rhymes since, however. Larkin used the same pair nearly four hundred years later in 'An Arundel Tomb': ...and to proveOur almost-instinct almost true:What will survive of us is love.
In his poem 'Meiosis' Auden employs another conventional eye-rhyme for that pesky word: The hopeful falsehood cannot stem with love loveThe flood on which all move and wish to move move.
The same poet's 'Precious Five' shows that eye-rhyme can be used in all kinds of ways: Whose oddness may provokeTo a mind-saving jokeA mind that would it were wereAn apathetic sphere sphere: Another imperfect kind is WRENCHED WRENCHED rhyme, which to compound the felony will usually go with a wrenched rhyme, which to compound the felony will usually go with a wrenched accent accent.
He doesn't mind the language being bent bentIn choosing words to force a wrenched accent accent.He has no sense of how the verse should sing singAnd tries to get away with wrenched rhyming.A bad wrenched rhyme won't ever please the eye: eye:Or find its place in proper poetry.
Where 'poetry' would have to be pronounced 'poe-a-try'.3 You will find this kind of thing a great deal in folk-singing, as I am sure you are aware. However, I can think of at least two fine You will find this kind of thing a great deal in folk-singing, as I am sure you are aware. However, I can think of at least two fine elegiac elegiac poems where such potentially wrenched rhymes are given. This from Ben Jonson's heart-rending, 'On My First Son'. poems where such potentially wrenched rhymes are given. This from Ben Jonson's heart-rending, 'On My First Son'.
Rest in soft peace, and asked say, 'Here doth lieBen Jonson his best piece of poetry.'
Auden uses precisely the same rhyme pair in his 'In Memory of W. B. Yeats': Let the Irish vessel lieEmptied of its poetry.
I think those two examples work superbly, and of course no reader of them in public would wrench those rhymes. However, we should not necessarily assume that since Yeats and Jonson are officially Fine Poets, everything they do must be regarded as unimpeachable. If like me you look at past or present poets to help teach you your craft, do be alive to the fact that they are as capable of being caught napping as the rest of us. Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus, as Horace famously observed: 'sometimes even the great Homer nods'. Here is a couplet from Keats's 'Lamia' by way of example: Till she saw him, as once she pass'd him by,Where gainst a column he leant thoughtfully Again, a reader-out-loud of this poem would not be so unkind to poet or listener as to wrench the end-rhyme into 'thoughtful-eye'. Nonetheless, whether wrenched or not the metre can safely be said to suck. The stressed 'he' is unavoidable, no pyrrhic substitutions help it and without wrenching the rhyme or the rhythm the line ends in a lame dactyl.
Where gainst gainst a a col column he he leant leant thought thoughtfully Add to this the word order inversion 'gainst a column he leant', the very banality of the word 'thoughtfully' and the archaic aphaeretic4 damage done to the word 'against' and the keenest Keatsian in the world would be forced to admit that this will never stand as one of the Wunderkind's more enduring monuments to poesy. I have, of course, taken just one couplet from a long (and in my view inestimably fine) poem, so it is rather mean to snipe. Not every line of damage done to the word 'against' and the keenest Keatsian in the world would be forced to admit that this will never stand as one of the Wunderkind's more enduring monuments to poesy. I have, of course, taken just one couplet from a long (and in my view inestimably fine) poem, so it is rather mean to snipe. Not every line of Hamlet Hamlet is a jewel, nor every square inch of the Sistine Chapel ceiling worthy of admiring gasps. In fact, Keats so disliked being forced into archaic inversions that in a letter he cited their proliferation in his extended poem is a jewel, nor every square inch of the Sistine Chapel ceiling worthy of admiring gasps. In fact, Keats so disliked being forced into archaic inversions that in a letter he cited their proliferation in his extended poem Hyperion Hyperion as one of the reasons for his abandonment of it. as one of the reasons for his abandonment of it.
Wrenching can be more successful when done for comic effect. Here is an example from Arlo Guthrie's 'Motorcycle Song'.
I don't want a pickleJust want to ride on my motorsickleAnd I'm not bein' fickle'Cause I'd rather ride on my motorsickleAnd I don't have fish to fryJust want to ride on my motorcy...cle Ogden Nash was the twentieth-century master of the comically wrenched rhyme, often, like Guthrie, wrenching the spelling to aid the reading. These lines are from 'The Sniffle'.
Is spite of her sniffle,Isabel's chiffle.Some girls with a sniffleWould be weepy and tiffle;They would look awfulLike a rained-on waffle....Some girls with a snuffleTheir tempers are uffle,But when Isabel's snivellyShe's snivelly civilly,And when she is snufflyShe's perfectly luffly.
Forcing a rhyme can exploit the variations in pronunciation that exist as a result of class, region or nationality. In a dramatic monologue written in the voice of a rather upper-class character fearfully fearfully could be made to rhyme with could be made to rhyme with stiffly stiffly for example, or for example, or houses houses with with prizes prizes (although these are rather stale ho-ho attributions in my view). (although these are rather stale ho-ho attributions in my view). Foot Foot rhymes with rhymes with but but to some northern ears, but then to some northern ears, but then foot foot in other northern areas (South Yorkshire especially) is pronounced to rhyme with in other northern areas (South Yorkshire especially) is pronounced to rhyme with loot loot. Myth Myth is a good rhyme for is a good rhyme for with with in America where the 'th' is usually in America where the 'th' is usually unvoiced unvoiced. This thought requires a small explanatory aside: a 'sidebar' as I believe they are called in American courtrooms.
Voiced consonants are exactly that, consonants produced with the use of our vocal chords. We use them for z, b, v and d but not for s, p, f and t, which are their consonants are exactly that, consonants produced with the use of our vocal chords. We use them for z, b, v and d but not for s, p, f and t, which are their unvoiced unvoiced equivalents. In other words a 'z' sound cannot be made without using the larynx, whereas an 's' can be, and so on: try it by reading out loud the first two sentences of this paragraph. Aside from expressing the consonant sounds, did you notice the two different pronunciations of the word 'use'? 'We equivalents. In other words a 'z' sound cannot be made without using the larynx, whereas an 's' can be, and so on: try it by reading out loud the first two sentences of this paragraph. Aside from expressing the consonant sounds, did you notice the two different pronunciations of the word 'use'? 'We use use them for...' and 'without the them for...' and 'without the use use of...'Voiced for the verb, unvoiced for the noun. Some of the changes we make in the voicing or non-voicing of consonants are so subtle that their avoidance is a sure sign of a non-native speaker. Thus in the sentence 'I have two cars' we use the 'v' in of...'Voiced for the verb, unvoiced for the noun. Some of the changes we make in the voicing or non-voicing of consonants are so subtle that their avoidance is a sure sign of a non-native speaker. Thus in the sentence 'I have two cars' we use the 'v' in have have in the usual voiced way. But when we say 'I have to do it' we usually un-voice the 'v' into its equivalent, the 'f''I in the usual voiced way. But when we say 'I have to do it' we usually un-voice the 'v' into its equivalent, the 'f''I haff haff to do it. 'He to do it. 'He haz haz two cars''he two cars''he hass hass to do it', 'he to do it', 'he had had two cars''he two cars''he hat hat to do it'. When a regular verb that ends in an unvoiced consonant is put into the past tense then the 'd' of '-ed' usually loses its voice into a 't': thus to do it'. When a regular verb that ends in an unvoiced consonant is put into the past tense then the 'd' of '-ed' usually loses its voice into a 't': thus missed missed rhymes with rhymes with list, passed list, passed with f with fast, miffed with with lift, stopped lift, stopped with with adopt adopt and so on. But we keep the voiced -ed if the verb has voiced consonants, and so on. But we keep the voiced -ed if the verb has voiced consonants, fizzed, loved, stabbed fizzed, loved, stabbed etc. Combinations of consonants can be voiced or unvoiced too: the 'ch' in etc. Combinations of consonants can be voiced or unvoiced too: the 'ch' in sandwich sandwich has the voiced 'j' sound, but in has the voiced 'j' sound, but in rich rich it is an unvoiced 'tch'; say the 'th' in it is an unvoiced 'tch'; say the 'th' in thigh thigh and it comes out as an unvoiced lisping hiss, say the 'th' in and it comes out as an unvoiced lisping hiss, say the 'th' in thy thy or or thine thine and your larynx buzzes. and your larynx buzzes.
To conclude with the pair that started this excursion: in British English there is no rhyme for our voiced with with, whereas the Americans can happily rhyme it with pith, myth, smith pith, myth, smith and so on. Weirdly we British and so on. Weirdly we British do do voice the 'th' of voice the 'th' of with with in 'forth in 'forth with with' (but not for some reason in 'herewith'). All of these pronunciations are, of course, natural to us. All we have to do is use our ears: but poets have to use their ears more than anyone else and be alive to all these aural subtleties (or 'anal subtitles' as my computer's auto-correct facility insisted upon when I mistyped both words). Rhyming alerts us to much that others miss.
Feminine and Triple Rhymes Most words rhyme on their beat beat, on their stressed syllable, a weak ending doesn't have to be rhymed, it can stay the same in both words. We saw this in Bo Peep Bo Peep with with find find them/ them/behind them. The lightly scudded 'them' is left alone. We wouldn't employ the rhymes them. The lightly scudded 'them' is left alone. We wouldn't employ the rhymes mined gem mined gem or or kind stem kind stem. Beat Beating rhymes happily with meet meeting, but you would not rhyme it with sweet thing sweet thing or or feet swing feet swing. Apart from anything else, you would wrench the rhythm. This much is obvious.
Such rhymes, beating/heating, battle/cattle, rhyming/chiming, station/nation beating/heating, battle/cattle, rhyming/chiming, station/nation are called feminine. We saw the are called feminine. We saw the melteth melteth and and pelteth pelteth in Keats's 'Fancy' and they naturally occur where any metric line has a weak ending, as in Shakespeare's twentieth sonnet: in Keats's 'Fancy' and they naturally occur where any metric line has a weak ending, as in Shakespeare's twentieth sonnet: A woman's face with Nature's own hand paint paintedHast thou, the master-mistress of my pass passion;A woman's gentle heart, but not acquaint acquaintedWith shifting change, as is false women's fash fashion; And we saw feminine and masculine endings alternate in Kipling's 'If': If you can dreamand not make dreams your mast master,If you can thinkand not make thoughts your aim aim;If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same same; It is the stressed syllables that rhyme: there is nothing more you need to know about feminine rhymingyou will have known this instinctively from all the songs and rhymes and poems you have ever heard and seen.
As a rule the more complex and polysyllabic rhymes become, the more comic the result. In a poem mourning the death of a beloved you would be unlikely to rhyme potato-cake potato-cake with with I hate to bake I hate to bake or or spatula spatula with with bachelor bachelor5 for example. Three-syllable rhymes (also known as triple-rhyme or for example. Three-syllable rhymes (also known as triple-rhyme or sdrucciolo sdrucciolo6) are almost always ironic, mock-heroic, comic or facetious in effect, in fact I can't think of any that are not. Byron was a master of these. Here are some examples from Don Juan Don Juan: Butoh! ye lords and ladies intellectualInform us truly, have they not hen pecked you all?He learn'd the arts of riding, fencing, gunnery,And how to scale a fortressor a nunnery.Since, in a way that's rather of the oddest, heBecame divested of his modestyThat there are months which nature grows more merry in,March has its hares, and May must have its heroine.I've got new mythological machineryAnd very handsome supernatural scenery He even manages quadruple quadruple rhyme: rhyme: So that their plan and prosody are eligible,Unless, like Wordsworth, they prove unintelligible.
Auden mimics this kind of feminine and triple-rhyming in, appropriately enough, his 'Letter to Lord Byron'.
Is Brighton still as proud of her pavilionAnd is it safe for girls to travel pillion?To those who live in Warrington or WiganIt's not a white lie, it's a whacking big 'un.Clearer than Scafell Pike, my heart has stamped onThe view from Birmingham to Wolverhampton.
Such (often annoyingly forced and arch) rhyming is sometimes called hudibrastic hudibrastic, after Samuel Butler's Hudibras Hudibras (the seventeenth-century poet Samuel Butler, not the nineteenth-century novelist of the same name), a mock-heroic verse satire on Cromwell and Puritanism which includes a great deal of dreadful rhyming of this kind: (the seventeenth-century poet Samuel Butler, not the nineteenth-century novelist of the same name), a mock-heroic verse satire on Cromwell and Puritanism which includes a great deal of dreadful rhyming of this kind: There was an ancient sage philosopherThat had read Alexander Ross overSo lawyers, lest the bear defendantAnd plaintiff dog, should make an end on't Hudibras also offers this stimulating example of also offers this stimulating example of assonance assonance rhyming: rhyming: And though his countrymen, the Huns,Did stew their meat between their bums.
Rich Rhyme The last species worthy of attention is rich rhyme rich rhyme.7 I find it rather horrid, but you should know that essentially it is either the rhyming of identical words that are different in meaning ( I find it rather horrid, but you should know that essentially it is either the rhyming of identical words that are different in meaning (homonyms)...
Rich rhyme is legal tender and quite soundWhen words of different meaning share a soundWhen neatly done the technique's fineWhen crassly done you'll cop a fine.
...or the rhyming of words that sound sound the same but are different in spelling the same but are different in spelling and and meaning ( meaning (homophones).
Rich rhyming's neither fish nor fowlThe sight is grim, the sound is foul.John Milton said with solemn weight,'They also serve who stand and wait.'
Technically there is a third kind, where the words are identical in appearance but the same neither in sound nor meaning, which results in a kind of rich eye-rhyme: He took a shot across his bowFrom an archer with a bow.This rhyme is not the best you'll ever readAnd surely not the best you've ever read.
Byron rhymes ours/hours, heir/air ours/hours, heir/air and and way/away way/away fairly successfully, but as a rule fairly successfully, but as a rule feminine feminine rich rhymes are less offensive to eye and ear for most of us than full-on monosyllabic rich rhymes like rich rhymes are less offensive to eye and ear for most of us than full-on monosyllabic rich rhymes like whole/hole whole/hole and and great/grate great/grate. Thus you are likely to find yourself using produce/ induce, motion/promotion produce/ induce, motion/promotion and so on much more frequently than the more wince-worthy and so on much more frequently than the more wince-worthy maid/made, knows/nose maid/made, knows/nose and the like. and the like.
A whole poem in rich rhyme? Thomas Hood, a Victorian poet noted for his gamesome use of puns and verbal tricks, wrote this, 'A First Attempt in Rhyme'. It includes a cheeky rich-rhyme triplet on 'burns'.
If I were used to writing verse,And had a muse not so perverse,But prompt at Fancy's call to springAnd carol like a bird in Spring;Or like a Bee, in summer time,That hums about a bed of thyme,And gathers honey and delightsFrom every blossom where it 'lights;If I, alas! had such a muse,To touch the Reader or amuse,And breathe the true poetic vein,This page should not be fill'd in vain!But ah! the pow'r was never mineTo dig for gems in Fancy's mine:Or wander over land and mainTo seek the Fairies' old domainTo watch Apollo while he climbsHis throne in oriental climes;Or mark the 'gradual dusky veil'Drawn over Tempe's tuneful vale,In classic lays remember'd longSuch flights to bolder wings belong;To Bards who on that glorious height,Of sun and song, Parnassus hight,8Partake the divine fire that burns,In Milton, Pope, and Scottish Burns,Who sang his native braes and burns.For me a novice strange and new,Who ne'er such inspiration knew,To weave a verse with travail sore,Ordain'd to creep and not to soar,A few poor lines alone I write,Fulfilling thus a lonely rite,Not meant to meet the Critic's eye,For oh! to hope from such as I,For anything that's fit to read,Were trusting to a broken reed.
II.
Rhyming Arrangements The convention used when describing rhyme-schemes is literally as simple as abc abc. The first rhyme of a poem is a a, the second b b, the third c c, and so on: At the round earth's imagined corners, blow a Your trumpets, angels; and arise, arise b From death, your numberless infinities b Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go; a All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow, a All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, b Despair, law, chance, hath slain, and you whose eyes b Shall behold God, and never taste death's woe.
a But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space; c For if, above all these, my sins abound, d 'Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace c When we are there. Here on this lowly ground, d Teach me how to repent; for that's as good e As if thou hadst sealed my pardon with thy blood.
e
JOHN D DONNE: Sonnet: 'At the round earth's imagined corners' Sonnet: 'At the round earth's imagined corners'
This particular abba abba cdcd ee abba abba cdcd ee9 arrangement is a hybrid of the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets' rhyme-schemes, of which more in Chapter Three. arrangement is a hybrid of the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets' rhyme-schemes, of which more in Chapter Three.
As to the descriptions of these layouts, well, that is simple enough. There are four very common forms. There is the COUPLET COUPLET...
So long as men can breathe and eyes can see seeSo long lives this, and this gives life to thee thee.
...and the TRIPLET TRIPLET:
In the poetry of the Augustan period (Dryden, Johnson, Swift, Pope etc.) you will often find triplets braced braced in one of these long curly brackets, as in the example above from the Prologue to Dryden's tragedy, in one of these long curly brackets, as in the example above from the Prologue to Dryden's tragedy, All For Love All For Love. Such braced triplets will usually hold a single thought and conclude with a full stop.
Next is CROSS-RHYMING CROSS-RHYMING, which rhymes alternating lines, abab abab etc: I wandered lonely as a cloud cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills hills,When all at once I saw a crowd crowd,A host, of golden daffodils daffodils; Finally there is ENVELOPE RHYME ENVELOPE RHYME, where a couplet is 'enveloped' by an outer rhyming pair: abba abba, as in the first eight lines of the Donne poem, or this stanza from Tennyson's In Memoriam In Memoriam.
The yule-log sparkled keen with frost frost,No wing of wind the region swept swept,But over all things brooding slept sleptThe quiet sense of something lost lost.
You might have noticed that in the cross-rhyme and envelope-rhyme examples above, Wordsworth and Tennyson indent indent rhyming pairs, as it were pressing the tab key to shift them to the right: this is by no means obligatory. Larkin does indent with 'Toads', perhaps gently to nudge our attention to the subtle consonance rhyming: rhyming pairs, as it were pressing the tab key to shift them to the right: this is by no means obligatory. Larkin does indent with 'Toads', perhaps gently to nudge our attention to the subtle consonance rhyming: Lots of folk live up lanes lanesWith fires in a bucket bucket,Eat windfalls and tinned sardines sardinesThey seem to like it like it.
While in his 'truly rhymed' poem 'The Trees' he presents the envelope-rhymed stanzas without indentation: The trees are coming into leaf leafLike something almost being said said.The recent buds relax and spread spread,Their greenness is a kind of grief grief.
Naturally, there are variations on these schemes: Wordsworth ends each cross-rhymed stanza of 'Daffodils' with a couplet, for example (abbacc). The world of formal rhyme-schemes awaits our excited inspection in the next chapter, but without delving into neurolinguistics and the deeper waters of academic prosody I really do not believe there is much more we need to know about rhyming in the technical sense. We have met all the types we are likely to meet and seen ways in which they may be arranged. The questions that concern us next are how how and and why why?
I have already addressed the idea of rhyme as a connective, unifying force in poems, but it is worth considering the obvious point that rhyme uses language. Or is, I should say, exclusive exclusive to language. Paint can evoke landscape, sculpture the textures of physical form, but neither of these modes of expression has rhyme available to them (save in some metaphorical sense); music, like verse, can do to language. Paint can evoke landscape, sculpture the textures of physical form, but neither of these modes of expression has rhyme available to them (save in some metaphorical sense); music, like verse, can do rhythm rhythm but it is only poetry that can yoke words together in rhyme (sometimes, of course, and aboriginally, at the service of music). Rhyme may not be a defining condition of poetry, but poetry is pretty much a defining condition of rhyme. If poets shun rhyme, they are closing themselves off from one of the few separate and special techniques available to them and that, in my estimation, is foolishly prodigal. but it is only poetry that can yoke words together in rhyme (sometimes, of course, and aboriginally, at the service of music). Rhyme may not be a defining condition of poetry, but poetry is pretty much a defining condition of rhyme. If poets shun rhyme, they are closing themselves off from one of the few separate and special techniques available to them and that, in my estimation, is foolishly prodigal.
Not all my poetry is in rhyme, but sometimes (and I cannot always be certain at the time why this should be) rhyming seems right and natural for a poem. It is more than likely that this will hold true in your work too.
One of the great faults we 'amateur' poets are prey to is lazy and pointless rhyming. If a poem is not to rhyme then it seems to me very silly indeed arbitrarily to introduce rhymes from time to time with no apparent thought but apparently because a natural rhyme has come up at that moment. So let us look now at good and bad rhyming, or convincing and unconvincing rhyming if you prefer. 'Deferred success rhyming' as those nervous of the word failure would have us say.
III.
Good and Bad Rhyme?
There are two issues to consider when rhyming: firstly and most clearly there is the need to avoid hackneyed hackneyed rhyme pairs. For the past seven hundred years poets have been rhyming rhyme pairs. For the past seven hundred years poets have been rhyming love love with with dove, moon dove, moon with with June, girl June, girl with with curl curl and and boy boy with with joy joy. Certain rhymes are so convenient and appropriate that their use had already become stale by the mid 1700s. Alexander Pope was fierce on the subject of bad rhymers in his An Essay on Criticism An Essay on Criticism: While they ring round the same unvary'd chimes,With sure returns of still expected rhymes.Where-e'er you find 'the cooling western breeze',In the next line, it 'whispers thro' the trees';If crystal streams 'with pleasing murmurs creep',The reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with 'sleep'.
Night/light/sight, death/breath and and cherish/perish cherish/perish might be included in that list. The poor old word might be included in that list. The poor old word love love, a natural subject for poetry if ever there was one, offers very few rhyme choices in English. Frances Cornford in 'To a Fat Lady Seen from the Train' did her best: O why do you walk through the fields in gloves gloves,Missing so much and so much?O fat white woman whom nobody loves loves,Why do you walk through the fields in gloves,When the grass is soft as the breast of doves dovesAnd shivering sweet to the touch?O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,Missing so much and so much?
Only the unlikely shoves shoves could have been added. When it is a singular could have been added. When it is a singular love love, the word above above becomes available and for the Cockney rhymesters among us, there is, I suppose, becomes available and for the Cockney rhymesters among us, there is, I suppose, guv guv. Of Of is a popular assonance, especially in songs. In written verse you would be forced either to run the word on with an enjambment which is likely to make it overstressed and clumsy or to resort to this kind of stale formulation: is a popular assonance, especially in songs. In written verse you would be forced either to run the word on with an enjambment which is likely to make it overstressed and clumsy or to resort to this kind of stale formulation: You're the one I love,The one I'm dreaming of.
Hate is so much easier... is so much easier...
If there is a rule to rhyming, I suppose it is that (save in comic verse or for some other desired effect) it should usually beif not invisiblenatural, transparent, seamless, discreet and unforced. The reader should not feel that a word has been chosen simply because because it rhymes. Very often, let us not pretend otherwise, words are chosen for precisely that reason, but it rhymes. Very often, let us not pretend otherwise, words are chosen for precisely that reason, but ars est celare artem ars est celare artemthe art lies in the concealment of art. So, two blindingly obvious points: AVOID THE OBVIOUS PAIRS.
STRIVE NOT TO DRAW ATTENTION TO A RHYME.
Trying to mint fresh rhymes and and being transparent and uncontrived in one's rhyming may seem like contradictory aims. Therein lies the art, of course; but if one guideline has to be sacrificed then for my preference it should certainly be the first. Better to go for a traditional rhyme pair than draw unnecessary attention to an unusual one. being transparent and uncontrived in one's rhyming may seem like contradictory aims. Therein lies the art, of course; but if one guideline has to be sacrificed then for my preference it should certainly be the first. Better to go for a traditional rhyme pair than draw unnecessary attention to an unusual one.
Both 'rules', like any, can of course be broken so long as you know what you are doing and why. If you want an ugly rhyme, it is no less legitimate than a dissonance and discord might be in music: horrific in the wrong hands of course, but by no means unconscionable. Talk of the wrong hands leads us to pathology.
It is a deep and important truth that human kind's knowledge advances further when we look not at success but at failure: disease reveals more than health ever can. We would never have understood, for example, how the brain or the liver worked were it not for them going wrong from time to time: they are not, after all, machines whose function is revealed by an intelligent inspection of their mechanisms, they are composed of unrevealing organic spongy matter whose function would be impossible to determine by dissection and examination alone. But when there is injury, disease or congenital defect, you can derive some clue as to their purpose by noticing what goes wrong with the parts of the body they control. A trauma or tumour in an area of the brain that causes the patient to fall over, for example, might suggest to a neurologist that this is the area that controls balance and mobility. In the same way rhyming can be shown to control the balance and mobility of a poem, doing much more than simply providing us with a linked concord of sounds: there is no better way to demonstrate this than by taking a look at some diseased rhyming.
Thus far almost all the excerpts we have scrutinised have been more or less healthy specimens of poetry. We did take a look at a couplet from Keats's 'Lamia': Till she saw him, as once she pass'd him by,Where gainst a column he leant thoughtfully.
There was not much doubt in our minds, I think, that this was a triumph neither of rhyme nor metre: in such a long poem we decided (or at least I maintained) this was not a terminal problem. We questioned, too, William Blake's prosodic skill in lines like: A Robin Red breast in a CagePuts all heaven in a Rage.
We forgave him also. It is time now to go further down this path and compare two poems from approximately the same era treating approximately the same themes. One is a healthy specimen, the other very sick indeed.
A Thought Experiment Your task is to imagine yourself as a Victorian poet, whiskered and wise. You have two poems to write: each will commemorate a disaster.
At approximately seven fifteen on the stormy night of Sunday 28 December 1879, with a howling wind blowing down from the Arctic, the high central navigation girders of the Tay Railway Bridge collapsed into the Firth of Tay at Dundee, taking with them a locomotive, six carriages and seventy-five souls (original estimates projected a death toll of ninety) on their way from Edinburgh to Dundee for Hogmanay. It was a disaster of the first magnitude, the Titanic Titanic of its day. The bridge had been open for less than twenty months and been pronounced perfectly sound by the Board of Trade, whose subsequent inquiry determined that a lack of buttressing was at fault. As with all such calamities, this one threatened a concomitant collapse in national self-confidence. To this day the event stands as the worst structural failure in British engineering history. of its day. The bridge had been open for less than twenty months and been pronounced perfectly sound by the Board of Trade, whose subsequent inquiry determined that a lack of buttressing was at fault. As with all such calamities, this one threatened a concomitant collapse in national self-confidence. To this day the event stands as the worst structural failure in British engineering history.
In this poem you, a Victorian poet, are going to tell the story in rhyming verse: the idea is not a contemplative or personal take on the vanity of human enterprise, fate, mankind's littleness when pitted against the might of nature or any other such private rumination, this is to be the verse equivalent of a public memorial. As a public poem it should not be too long, but of appropriate length for recitation. How do you embark upon the creation of such a work?
You get out your notebook and consider some of the words that are likely to be needed. Rhyme words are of great importance sinceby definitionthey form the last words of each line, the repetition of their sounds will be crucial to the impact of your poem. They need therefore to be words central to the story and its meaning. Let us look at our options.