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Reasoning With Rhyme By Mona Hodgson
Having both a definite rhythmic pattern and rhyme scheme, rhymed verse is the most structured type of poetry. Two or more words share an identity in vowel sound and any following consonants. Such as “ay” in day/pray and “ain” in lain/rain in Joyce Kilmer’s poem below. Trees By Joyce Kilmer I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in Summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree. The rhyme can also be an identity in syllables as in the case of two- or three-syllable rhymes. For instance: sorrow/tomorrow and beneath/bequeath. The Ways Of Rhyme A poem may rhyme perfectly or it may rhyme approximately, in one of several ways, including the following: Perfect Rhyme or true rhyme is the matched sound values of stressed vowels and subsequent consonants as in prest/breast, wear/hair, go/throw, home/roam, blooming/consuming, and own/phone. Notice that most of those rhymes don't depend upon sight or spelling, but upon sound alone. End‑Rhyme, the most common and recognized form of rhyme, is a rhyme occurring at the end of a line. We see end-rhyme in the couplets of Trees. Run-Over Rhyme or linked rhyme is when the last word of one line rhymes with the first word in the next line. Internal Rhyme, on the other hand, is rhyme occurring anywhere within lines. For example, the line of a popular song, "the lazy, hazy, crazy, days of summer." Other uses are more subtle, rhyming a word in the middle of one line with a word in the midst of another. Identicals repeat the same word in the same or in different lines. Or an identical rhyme may repeat the sound of the entire word as in bare/bear, hare/hair, blew/blue, and fair/fare. I’ve provided another example in my poem, Excuses. Can you find it? Excuses I would write, but tea kettles scream; pencils need sharpening; telephones ring. Time for excuses always abounds, even when the right time to write isn't found. MH Eye Rhyme is when two words look like they should rhyme because of their spelling, as in tone/done, tough/bough and dead/read. Backward Rhyme is a reverse of full words as in peek/keep, evil/live, and no/on. Idea Rhyme relates words in thought, rather than in sound as in car/travel, telephone/ring, or dog/bark. Joyce Kilmer’s descriptive use of “hungry mouth” relates words in thought, implying a readiness to eat. Alliteration is the repetition of sounds. Consonance and assonance are tools of alliteration. In consonance there is a repetition of consonants while the main vowels differ. Reread the third couplet in Kilmer’s poem. Lifts and leafy provide subtle alliteration. In assonance the vowels have the same sound, but the consonants differ as in coat/boar, bound/count, and coot/aloof. Putting It To Use We’ve talked about various types of rhyme, now let’s look at some tips for using them. Avoid "cliche rhyming." Don't use over‑worked rhyme pairs such as life/strife, love/dove, spring/sing. What may have worked in poems that are now classics like trees/breeze in William Wordsworth’s, The Daffodils, is seen as cliché in contemporary poems. Get creative. Don't force a rhyme by dragging in a word just for rhyme, whether it makes sense or not. All rhymed words should seem equally natural and equally called for by what is being said. Avoid using two sets of rhyming words in the same stanza that use the same vowel ‑ such as meet/greet and feel/real. It comes across as overdone and confusing. Strong nouns and verbs offer the strongest rhymes, create the strongest, clearest pictures, and strengthen the poem's theme, meaning, and purpose. Be on the lookout for unintentional rhyme. A rhyme that pops up where it's not expected can produce a jarring effect. Read your poem aloud, specifically listening for words you've already used that rhyme but don't necessarily appear at the ends of lines. Having trouble making a rhyme? Look through your poem and locate a word you wish to emphasize and place it at the end of a line. Then find a nearby line to add to or alter so it ends with a rhyming word. Skillfully used rhymes emphasize the main words in a poem and express the theme, thought, or word picture you've chosen. For an example, consider William Wordsworth’s brilliant use of cloud/crowd and mood/solitude as end-rhymes in The Daffodils. Rhyme works well when the tone is definite and assured, when you're making a statement. Make sure your poem is consistent in tone. Rhyme can strengthen the effectiveness of a dramatic or tension‑building poem. Rhyme is an effective tool in crafting light verse or humorous poems. Play with different types of sound, rhyme, and the placement of rhyme. Check It Out Study the work of your favorite poets. Did they work with rhyme? If so, what types of rhyme did they employ? Give It A Try One of the beauties of poetry is that the very form offers the poet limitless options, including rhyme and its many offerings. As you read through some of your own poems, look for rhyme in any of the forms listed above. If you used them, are they working? Might the poem benefit from the use of rhyme in one form or another or several? Have fun with it—sight and sound.
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