XIII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2021

Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words.

Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.

Writing Rhymes

In writing, rhyme is most closely associated with poetry. This literary art form is considered quite difficult to master, and although not every poem features rhyming words or patterns, rhyme is an important literary device for poets. To develop rhyme as a writing skill, there are helpful strategies to use:

Utilize rhyme scheme: Rhyme scheme is the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of lines of a poem. This order can be helpful for writers to understand rhyme and its effect. Some simple rhyme schemes to rely on for beginning writers are ABAB or ABCB. These letters indicate where the rhymes take place at the end of the lines. In ABAB, the first and third lines rhyme at the end, as do the second and fourth lines. In ABCB, just the second and fourth lines rhyme at the end.

Explore different poetic forms: Another strategy for writers to develop rhyming technique is to explore different forms of poetry with specific types of rhyme and rhyme schemes. These might include sonnets, limericks, and even ballad.

Explore different types and forms of rhyme: Writers can explore different types and forms of rhyme instead of being limited to end rhymes in poetry.

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, madness and sadness, love and dove.

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.

single, also known as masculine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the final syllable of the words (rhyme, sublime)

double, also known as 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)

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 necessarily contain stressed vowels. (cleaver, silver, or pitter, patter; the final syllable of the words bottle and fiddle is a liquid consonant.)

imperfect (or near): a rhyme between a stressed and an unstressed syllable. (wing, caring)

weak (or unaccented): a rhyme between two sets of one or more unstressed syllables. (hammer, carpenter)

semirhyme: a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word. (bend, ending)

forced (or oblique): a rhyme with an imperfect match in sound. (green, fiend; one, thumb)

assonance: matching vowels. (shake, hate) Assonance is sometimes referred to as slant rhymes, along with consonance.

consonance: matching consonants. (rabies, robbers)

half rhyme (or slant rhyme): matching final consonants. (hand, lend)

pararhyme: all consonants match. (tick, tock)

alliteration (or head rhyme): matching initial consonants. (ship, short)

Identical rhymes

Identical rhymes are considered less than perfect in English poetry; but are valued more highly in other literatures such as, for example, rime riche in French poetry.

Though homophones and homonyms satisfy the first condition for rhyming—that is, that the stressed vowel sound is the same—they do not satisfy the second: that the preceding consonant be different. As stated above, in a perfect rhyme the last stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical in both words.

If the sound preceding the stressed vowel is also identical, the rhyme is sometimes considered to be inferior and not a perfect rhyme after all. An example of such a super-rhyme or "more than perfect rhyme" is the identical rhyme, in which not only the vowels but also the onsets of the rhyming syllables are identical, as in gun and begun. Punning rhymes, such as bare and bear are also identical rhymes. The rhyme may extend even farther back than the last stressed vowel. If it extends all the way to the beginning of the line, so that there are two lines that sound very similar or identical, it is called a holorhyme ("For I scream/For ice cream").

In poetics these would be considered identity, rather than rhyme.

Eye rhyme

Eye rhymes or sight rhymes or spelling rhymes refer to similarity in spelling but not in sound where the final sounds are spelled identically but pronounced differently.Examples in English are cough, bough, and love, move.

Some early written poetry appears to contain these, but in many cases the words used rhymed at the time of writing, and subsequent changes in pronunciation have meant that the rhyme is now lost.

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,” a mind rhyme has occurred.

Classification by position

Rhymes may be classified according to their position in the verse:

Tail rhyme (also called end rhyme or rime couée) is a rhyme in the final syllable(s) of a verse (the most common kind).

Internal rhyme occurs when a word or phrase in the interior of a line rhymes with a word or phrase at the end of a line, or within a different line.

Off-centered rhyme is a type of internal rhyme occurring in unexpected places in a given line. This is sometimes called a misplaced-rhyme scheme or a spoken word rhyme style.

Holorime, mentioned above, occurs when two entire lines have the same sound.

Broken rhyme is a type of enjambement producing a rhyme by dividing a word at the line break of a poem to make a rhyme with the end word of another line.

Cross rhyme matches a sound or sounds at the end of a line with the same sound or sounds in the middle of the following (or preceding) line.

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem.

References:

1. Galperin I.R. English Stylistics - Москва «Высшая школа» 1981. – 333 с.

2. "Rhyme". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. 2013.

3. "Rhyme, which cites Whitfield's University Rhyming Dictionary, 1951.