Page 45 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes 4.6.1 Types of Rhyme

The word rhyme can be used in a specific and a general sense. In the specific sense, two words rhyme
if their final stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical; two lines of poetry rhyme if their
final strong positions are filled with rhyming words. A rhyme in the strict sense is also called a
perfect rhyme. Examples are sight and flight, deign and gain, madness and sadness.

4.6.2 Perfect Rhymes
Perfect rhymes can be classified according to the number of syllables included in the rhyme, which
is dictated by the location of the final stressed syllable.
• Masculine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the final syllable of the words (rhyme, sublime).
• Feminine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the penultimate (second from last) syllable of the
words (picky, tricky).
• Dactylic: a rhyme in which the stress is on the antepenultimate (third from last) syllable
(cacophonies, Aristophanes).

4.6.3 General Rhymes

In the general sense, general rhyme can refer to various kinds of phonetic similarity between words,
and to the use of such similar-sounding words in organizing verse. Rhymes in this general sense are
classified according to the degree and manner of the phonetic similarity:
• Syllabic: a rhyme in which the last syllable of each word sounds the same but does not neces-
sarily contain vowels. (cleaver, silver, or pitter, patter).
• Imperfect: a rhyme between a stressed and an unstressed syllable. (wing, caring).
• Semirhyme: a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word. (bend, ending).
• Oblique (or slant/forced): a rhyme with an imperfect match in sound. (green, fiend; one,
thumb).
• Assonance: matching vowels. (shake, hate) Assonance is sometimes used to refer to slant
rhymes.
• Consonance: matching consonants. (rabies, robbers).
• Half Rhyme (or sprung rhyme): matching final consonants. (bent, ant).
• Alliteration (or head rhyme): matching initial consonants. (short, ship).
A rhyme is not classified as a rhyme if one of the words being rhymed is the entirety of the other
word (for example, Ball and all).

4.6.4 Eye Rhyme

Eye rhymes or sight rhymes refer to similarity in spelling but not in sound, as with cough, bough, or
love, move. These are not rhymes in the strict sense, but often were in earlier language periods.

4.6.5 Mind Rhyme
Mind Rhyme is a kind of substitution rhyme similar to rhyming slang, but it is less generally codified
and is “heard” only when generated by a specific verse context. For instance, “this sugar is neat /
and tastes so sour.” If a reader or listener thinks of the word “sweet” instead of “sour”, then a mind
rhyme has occurred.

38 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY