Rhyme

RHYME

“ A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry.”(Wikipedia.com) The sounds in two or more lines usually correspond.(Dictionary.com) Often, the last syllable of many words will be similar.

History

“To make rimes or verses, to versify.”(635 The Oxford English Dictionary) is the most prominent method of cleverly wording sentences in versification.The word comes from the Old French word "rime", ultimately from the Greek ρυθμος (rhythmos) from which "rhythm" also derives. In English, the spelling "rhyme" came to be adopted at the beginning of the Modern English period in order to reflect the Greek way of spelling. However, the spelling "rime" has remained in English as a rare alternative spelling. The concept of rhyme and its role in poetry vary considerably in different cultures. In modern English and most European literary traditions, it is the final vowel/consonate combination found at the ends of lines that are repeated across the rhyming words. The usage of rhymes began heavily in the sacred Latin poetry of the early Christian church. During the twelfth century rhyming became an outstanding metrical mark of poetry . Today two words are said to rhyme only when the sound of the final accented syllable of one word (placed usually at the end of a line of verse) agrees with the final accented syllable of another word. “When the vowels in the final accented syllables of the two rhyming words and the consonants (if any) succeeding the vowel have exactly the same sound, it is called perfect rhyme, e.g., shroud and cloud, mark and bark.” (Infoplease.com)The twentieth century began categorizing different types of rhymes.For example, when rhymes have one syllable or end in a consonant with no mute e following, such as sad and bad, they are said to be a single or masculine rhyme. However, When rhymes are not accented on the last syllable or end in a final mute e (able and cable), they are said to be weak endings, or feminine rhymes. When words within a single line are rhymed, it is called an internal rhyme.

“Categories of rhyme include: tail rhyme (or end): a rhyme in the final syllable(s) of a verse (the most common kind) masculine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the final syllable of the words. (rhyme, sublime, crime) feminine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the penultimate (second from last) syllable of the words. (picky, tricky, sticky) dactylic: a rhyme in which the stress is on the antepenultimate (third from last) syllable (hesitant, president) triple: a rhyme in which all three syllables of a three-syllable word are stressed equally. perfect: a rhyme between words that are identical in sound from the point of their first accented syllable forward. (sight and flight, deign and gain and quatrain) imperfect: a rhyme between a stressed and an unstressed syllable. (den, siren) identity: a rhyme that starts at a consonant instead of a vowel, or rhyming a word with itself. (gun, begun) semirhyme: a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word. (bend, ending) oblique (or slant): a rhyme with an imperfect match in sound. sight (or eye): a similarity in spelling but not in sound. (cough, bough, or love, move) consonance: matching consonants. (her, dark) half rhyme (or sprung rhyme) is consonance on the final consonants of the words involved assonance: matching vowels. (shake, hate) A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem.” (*[1])

Works Cited

[http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=rhyme;The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RhymeAll text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).

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