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The Right Word
October 2007 - "Rhymes for Modern Times"
October 2007 - "Rhymes for Modern Times"
Rhyme is an important tool for creating poetry in the English language. Many traditional poetic forms
used in English poetry have a pattern of end-rhymes. These forms have rhyming words at the ends of the
lines. Rhyme is used for two main reasons. Rhymed words delight the ear, and poetry should sound
beautiful to the reader’s ear. Also, end-rhyme makes the poem simpler for the reader to understand, by
breaking the poem into smaller parts with an audible ending, like the punctuation mark at the end of a
sentence.
In writing English poetry, there are three kinds of rhyming attempts that matter – rhymed, nearly rhymed,
and failed to rhyme. The readers are the judge of your rhymes. They decide if your rhyme succeeded or
failed. Many centuries ago, rhyming poetic forms in English typically included structures that we call near
rhyme today, as well as structures of full rhyme. For modern poetry, the structure of near rhyme is
acceptable to most readers for end-rhyme, but it is not as pleasing and complete to the ear as full rhyme.
What do you hear when you pronounce these pairs of one-syllable words aloud?
Time, dime.
Passed, past.
Bough, cough.
Love, prove.
Note, mope.
Damp, dump.
Poet, rake.
The first pair sounds alike. The second pair sounds exactly alike, even more alike than the first pair. The
third pair is similar to the eye, but the words don’t sound similar. The fourth and fifth pairs sound similar,
but they don’t sound the same. The sixth pair is almost exactly alike, but there is some difference. The
final pair of words do NOT sound alike in any way. We will look at these examples more closely, so you will
come to understand them each. It will be helpful to you if you get your dictionary ready to use while
looking at these words.
Let’s start with the last example. There is nothing about the word “poet” that sounds like the word
“rake”. These two words do not rhyme.
Let’s look at the third example. The words “bough” and “cough” look alike, and in old versions of
English they might have been pronounced alike. But in modern English, the word “bough” sounds like
“bow”, while the word “cough” sounds like “coff”. Looking the words up in the dictionary will show you
different pronunciation symbols for them. Two words that look alike but do not sound alike are called eye
rhyme. They are pleasing to the eye, and writers can use them for a visual effect in a poem, but they do
not match to the ear. They fail to rhyme.
The fourth example, “love” and “prove” look alike. They also sound similar. Because they sound similar,
they may be considered near rhyme by the modern reader. Both words have the same end-consonant
sound of “v”. However, although both words have the vowel letter “o”, they do not have the same vowel
sound. If you look up these two words in a dictionary, you will see that their vowel pronunciation is not
the same. Therefore, they are not full rhymes.
The fifth example, “note” and “mope” sound similar. They may be considered near rhyme by the
modern reader. The matching is in their vowel sound – they both have the same “o” vowel sound, called a
long o. However, “note” ends with a “t” consonant sound, and “mope” ends with a “p” consonant sound.
They do not have the same end-consonant sound. Therefore, they are not full rhymes.
Consider the sixth example. “Damp” and “dump” are very similar in sound, and they only differ in spelling
by one letter. However, they have a different vowel, and therefore might be considered near rhymes, but
not full rhymes.
Now let’s consider “time” and “dime”. These two words are full rhyme. Their vowel sound is the long
“i” and their end-consonant is “m”. Full rhyme is the most pleasing type of rhyme to your reader’s ear.
Finally, the second pair, “passed” and “past” are an example of rich rhyme, the fullest rhyme possible.
These two words sound exactly alike to the ear from beginning to end. There are very few rich rhyme
words in English, but you may want to use rich rhyme occasionally when you want to create an important
effect in your poem. Rich rhymes can be made with homophones (two words that are pronounced the
same but have different spelling and meaning, such as night/knight) or homonyms (two words that are
pronounced and spelled the same but differ in meaning, such as port/port where one is a place and the
other a wine). However, do not try to rhyme with homographs (two words that are spelled the same but
pronounced differently, such as read/read in “I will read” and “I had read”). Homographs are not rich
rhyme. They are only eye rhyme, which fails to rhyme to the ear.
Whenever you are trying to create a good end-rhyme in a poem, keep in mind that full rhyme is preferred
over near rhyme, even by the modern reader. If are unsure whether two words are a full rhyme, you should
use a dictionary to help you be sure of the correct pronunciation of each end-word. A rhyming-dictionary
will help you find lists of full rhymes.
What about words that have more than one syllable? For rhyming purposes, you need only to rhyme the
last syllable, as in the words “art” and “sweetheart”, “talk” and “tomahawk”, or “defense” and
“reference”. Last-syllable rhyme is the easiest way to rhyme longer words in English.
If you would like to expand your rhyming skills, you can create multi-syllable rhymes for more than just
the last syllable. For creating two-syllable rhymes, you can use similar two-syllable words
(thinning/winning). You can use longer words (fated/liberated) whose last two syllables rhyme. You can
use two separate words acting together (beseech him/impeach him). Finally, you can use a longer word in
one line and a “mosaic” of shorter words in the other line (installment/Paul meant), called mosaic rhyme.
Multi-syllable rhymes require more than just vowel match and end-consonant match to be heard as full
rhyme. They also require matching of the accented syllable in the last two syllables of both lines. For
example, in the two-syllable rhyme “-ender”, a full rhyme is “surrender” with “pretender”, which both
have the accent on the next-to-last syllable. In contrast, in the two-syllable rhyme “-enic”, “arsenic”
would not be quite a full rhyme with “hygienic” because the accented syllable does not fall in the same
place within the last two syllables of each word. Your dictionary has a pronunciation symbol that shows
you which syllable is the accented syllable in a multi-syllable word.
Some words are easier to rhyme than others. If you look in a rhyming dictionary, you will see that some
end-sounds have a lot of rhyming words available, and other end-sounds have only a few rhyming words
available. The words “face” and “blue” are easy to match with full rhyme words. The words “salt” and
“coach” are more limited for full rhyme words. There is no full rhyme available for a few one-syllable words
in English, such as “orange”, “month”, and “pint”. Two-syllable words are more difficult to match as full
rhymes. Some two-syllable words, such as “silver” and “purple” have no two-syllable rhyme.
It takes skill to maintain full rhymes over a long sequence of end-rhymed lines in English. Some poetic
forms that came into English from other languages, such as the Petrarchan Sonnet and the Villanelle,
require the same rhyme sounds many times for the a lines and b lines of their rhyme schemes. This can be
a challenge in English. If you are using one of these poetic forms, do not set up a pattern of full rhymes
and then suddenly use a near rhyme at the end because you have run out of rhyming ideas. It will induce
great dissatisfaction in your reader when the unexpected near rhyme is encountered. Instead, start the
poem with a rhyme word that has an ending which will have lots of full rhymes in the English language, so
you won’t run out of ideas. Or, use near rhymes occasionally throughout the poem, starting near the
beginning, so the reader is expecting them. For beginner practice with full rhymes, you will find it easier
to use poetic forms which require only two or three rhymes of the same sound. Poetic forms with easy
rhyme schemes include Couplets, Quatrains, and Tercets, and forms composed of simple, short stanzas
such as Ballads, Elegies, Terza Rima, and the Shakespearean Sonnet.
References:
All the Fun’s in How You Say a Thing: an Explanation of Meter and Versification by Timothy Steele. Ohio
University Press, Athens, 1999.
The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics edited by Alex Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan.
Princeton University Press, 1993.
used in English poetry have a pattern of end-rhymes. These forms have rhyming words at the ends of the
lines. Rhyme is used for two main reasons. Rhymed words delight the ear, and poetry should sound
beautiful to the reader’s ear. Also, end-rhyme makes the poem simpler for the reader to understand, by
breaking the poem into smaller parts with an audible ending, like the punctuation mark at the end of a
sentence.
In writing English poetry, there are three kinds of rhyming attempts that matter – rhymed, nearly rhymed,
and failed to rhyme. The readers are the judge of your rhymes. They decide if your rhyme succeeded or
failed. Many centuries ago, rhyming poetic forms in English typically included structures that we call near
rhyme today, as well as structures of full rhyme. For modern poetry, the structure of near rhyme is
acceptable to most readers for end-rhyme, but it is not as pleasing and complete to the ear as full rhyme.
What do you hear when you pronounce these pairs of one-syllable words aloud?
Time, dime.
Passed, past.
Bough, cough.
Love, prove.
Note, mope.
Damp, dump.
Poet, rake.
The first pair sounds alike. The second pair sounds exactly alike, even more alike than the first pair. The
third pair is similar to the eye, but the words don’t sound similar. The fourth and fifth pairs sound similar,
but they don’t sound the same. The sixth pair is almost exactly alike, but there is some difference. The
final pair of words do NOT sound alike in any way. We will look at these examples more closely, so you will
come to understand them each. It will be helpful to you if you get your dictionary ready to use while
looking at these words.
Let’s start with the last example. There is nothing about the word “poet” that sounds like the word
“rake”. These two words do not rhyme.
Let’s look at the third example. The words “bough” and “cough” look alike, and in old versions of
English they might have been pronounced alike. But in modern English, the word “bough” sounds like
“bow”, while the word “cough” sounds like “coff”. Looking the words up in the dictionary will show you
different pronunciation symbols for them. Two words that look alike but do not sound alike are called eye
rhyme. They are pleasing to the eye, and writers can use them for a visual effect in a poem, but they do
not match to the ear. They fail to rhyme.
The fourth example, “love” and “prove” look alike. They also sound similar. Because they sound similar,
they may be considered near rhyme by the modern reader. Both words have the same end-consonant
sound of “v”. However, although both words have the vowel letter “o”, they do not have the same vowel
sound. If you look up these two words in a dictionary, you will see that their vowel pronunciation is not
the same. Therefore, they are not full rhymes.
The fifth example, “note” and “mope” sound similar. They may be considered near rhyme by the
modern reader. The matching is in their vowel sound – they both have the same “o” vowel sound, called a
long o. However, “note” ends with a “t” consonant sound, and “mope” ends with a “p” consonant sound.
They do not have the same end-consonant sound. Therefore, they are not full rhymes.
Consider the sixth example. “Damp” and “dump” are very similar in sound, and they only differ in spelling
by one letter. However, they have a different vowel, and therefore might be considered near rhymes, but
not full rhymes.
Now let’s consider “time” and “dime”. These two words are full rhyme. Their vowel sound is the long
“i” and their end-consonant is “m”. Full rhyme is the most pleasing type of rhyme to your reader’s ear.
Finally, the second pair, “passed” and “past” are an example of rich rhyme, the fullest rhyme possible.
These two words sound exactly alike to the ear from beginning to end. There are very few rich rhyme
words in English, but you may want to use rich rhyme occasionally when you want to create an important
effect in your poem. Rich rhymes can be made with homophones (two words that are pronounced the
same but have different spelling and meaning, such as night/knight) or homonyms (two words that are
pronounced and spelled the same but differ in meaning, such as port/port where one is a place and the
other a wine). However, do not try to rhyme with homographs (two words that are spelled the same but
pronounced differently, such as read/read in “I will read” and “I had read”). Homographs are not rich
rhyme. They are only eye rhyme, which fails to rhyme to the ear.
Whenever you are trying to create a good end-rhyme in a poem, keep in mind that full rhyme is preferred
over near rhyme, even by the modern reader. If are unsure whether two words are a full rhyme, you should
use a dictionary to help you be sure of the correct pronunciation of each end-word. A rhyming-dictionary
will help you find lists of full rhymes.
What about words that have more than one syllable? For rhyming purposes, you need only to rhyme the
last syllable, as in the words “art” and “sweetheart”, “talk” and “tomahawk”, or “defense” and
“reference”. Last-syllable rhyme is the easiest way to rhyme longer words in English.
If you would like to expand your rhyming skills, you can create multi-syllable rhymes for more than just
the last syllable. For creating two-syllable rhymes, you can use similar two-syllable words
(thinning/winning). You can use longer words (fated/liberated) whose last two syllables rhyme. You can
use two separate words acting together (beseech him/impeach him). Finally, you can use a longer word in
one line and a “mosaic” of shorter words in the other line (installment/Paul meant), called mosaic rhyme.
Multi-syllable rhymes require more than just vowel match and end-consonant match to be heard as full
rhyme. They also require matching of the accented syllable in the last two syllables of both lines. For
example, in the two-syllable rhyme “-ender”, a full rhyme is “surrender” with “pretender”, which both
have the accent on the next-to-last syllable. In contrast, in the two-syllable rhyme “-enic”, “arsenic”
would not be quite a full rhyme with “hygienic” because the accented syllable does not fall in the same
place within the last two syllables of each word. Your dictionary has a pronunciation symbol that shows
you which syllable is the accented syllable in a multi-syllable word.
Some words are easier to rhyme than others. If you look in a rhyming dictionary, you will see that some
end-sounds have a lot of rhyming words available, and other end-sounds have only a few rhyming words
available. The words “face” and “blue” are easy to match with full rhyme words. The words “salt” and
“coach” are more limited for full rhyme words. There is no full rhyme available for a few one-syllable words
in English, such as “orange”, “month”, and “pint”. Two-syllable words are more difficult to match as full
rhymes. Some two-syllable words, such as “silver” and “purple” have no two-syllable rhyme.
It takes skill to maintain full rhymes over a long sequence of end-rhymed lines in English. Some poetic
forms that came into English from other languages, such as the Petrarchan Sonnet and the Villanelle,
require the same rhyme sounds many times for the a lines and b lines of their rhyme schemes. This can be
a challenge in English. If you are using one of these poetic forms, do not set up a pattern of full rhymes
and then suddenly use a near rhyme at the end because you have run out of rhyming ideas. It will induce
great dissatisfaction in your reader when the unexpected near rhyme is encountered. Instead, start the
poem with a rhyme word that has an ending which will have lots of full rhymes in the English language, so
you won’t run out of ideas. Or, use near rhymes occasionally throughout the poem, starting near the
beginning, so the reader is expecting them. For beginner practice with full rhymes, you will find it easier
to use poetic forms which require only two or three rhymes of the same sound. Poetic forms with easy
rhyme schemes include Couplets, Quatrains, and Tercets, and forms composed of simple, short stanzas
such as Ballads, Elegies, Terza Rima, and the Shakespearean Sonnet.
References:
All the Fun’s in How You Say a Thing: an Explanation of Meter and Versification by Timothy Steele. Ohio
University Press, Athens, 1999.
The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics edited by Alex Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan.
Princeton University Press, 1993.