informal talk about forms: a little bit about rhyme

by Tom Adam

Not too long ago I spent some time talking about rhythm and meter in poetry, but I haven’t yet said much about rhyme, which is the other big thing in formal poetry. And not only is rhyme interesting, it is generally an easier topic to address.

Why rhyme?
In terms of poetry, what does rhyme bring to the table aside from another reference book (the rhyming dictionary)? Harkening back to the days when poetry was still a memorized and spoken art form, it served a couple of purposes. It made for much easier memorization: The repetition of sounds provided a built-in cue for what came next. Also, the highly rhythmic style of accentual poetry emphasized important parts of the lines (especially kennings).

Contemporary rhyme
Now that we tend to “see” poetry more often than hear it, the use of rhyme as memorization tool is a lot less useful (at least in terms of literary poetry, though performance poetry and song lyrics still often include it). For centuries, though, rhyme was an important – no, necessary - element of poetry in most European forms.

In some cases, such as the original villanelle, it was used by troubadours as a sign of their linguistic creativity. More fixed forms such as sonnets use it in conjunction with stanza length to form relationships between ideas.

(A short digression: Anymore, most prosodic devices are used “just because.” While there isn’t anything wrong with that line of reasoning, it being one I myself frequently use, it does make the sweeping pronouncements I favor somewhat less accurate. So, in order to save myself a huge amount of qualifications throughout the rest of this article, let me just say that rhyme used as a prosodic device usually follows what I say, but rhyme is used much, much more loosely as well.)

Rhyme creates connections. The repetition of the sound is a referent to the other items using the same sounds in a way that says, “Hey! You! Remember that other line, two up? Yeah: we’re related in some way.” It’s a delicate act to use the device effectively, yet not distract the reader by too constant rhyming.

End-rhyme and internal rhyme
Rhyme tends to occur in two places in a poem (and I’m not sure if there are any others): at the ends of lines or within lines. End-rhyme is literally that, rhyming at the end of a line. Formal poetry uses this as an element. Internal rhyme, rhyming within a line or stanza, tends to be a less formal effect, used more like alliteration. It still connects elements of the poem, in what can be a subtler way than end-rhyme.

This verse from Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” shows both types of rhyme. Lines two and four are linked by end-rhyme while line three has an internal rhyme between bright and right.

The Sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he!
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.

Types of rhymes
Rhyme has a pretty diverse set of specific types related to which parts of the word or words have similar sounds. Most types are interesting from a view of linguistics, but within most poetry the important types of rhyme are masculine, feminine and slant.

Masculine and feminine rhymes are based on the last stressed syllable of the word sharing the same sound. In a masculine rhyme the stressed syllable is the final syllable of the word. Feminine rhyme has the stress on the second to last syllable though the final, unstressed syllable must also have the same sound.

From Coleridge’s example above, all of his rhymes are masculine: he/sea, bright/right. Feminine rhymes are common in English with verbs: trying/vying, writing/kiting, plunder/sunder; but can be found within nouns as well: cavern/tavern.

Slant rhyme occurs when the sounds being rhymed are not exact matches in sound, but are close: time/fine, meager/seeker, under/candor.

Rhyming on the phrase
In song lyrics, especially in hip hop, but also within performance poetry, there is the idea of rhyming a phrase, often with slant or imperfect rhymes, often using internal rhyme, to rhyme entire phrases. It can be very tricky to pull off well, but the Barenaked Ladies used the technique in their song “One Week:”

Gonna make a break and take a fake
I’d like a stinkin achin shake

“Make a break” and “take a fake” could be a series of four internal rhymes, but the identical structure, later followed by “achin shake” shows that the extended rhyme of the phrase is what they sought.

Fun with rhyme
I don’t think it’s any accident that most people’s first experiences with language tends to come from nursery rhymes. Rhymes have been used in some of the “great literature of the ages,” but they can just be fun. As with anything from Mother Goose, to Jabberwocky, to rhyming slang, it’s OK to play with words just because it sounds cool. So next time you want to rhyme, remember to have fun with it!

Check out Wikipedia’s rhyme article for more information on types of rhymes as well as views on how different languages have treated it.