What is Rhyme?
A rhyme is a repetition of similar-sounding words
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
What is Rhyme Scheme?
Rhyme scheme is often identified by using letters to indicate the rhyming lines. For example, observe how the rhyme scheme of the following nursery rhyme has been identified by letters.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, (A)
How I wonder what you are. (A)
Up above the world so high, (B)
Like a diamond in the sky. (B)
Monorhyme: The same rhyme is repeated in every line. Thus, the rhyme scheme is AAAA…
Alternate rhyme: This is also known as ABAB rhyme scheme. The rhyme repeats in every other line.
Couplet: This contains two-lined stanzas with the same rhyme. The rhyme scheme is AA, BB, CC etc.
Triplet: This contains three-lined stanzas with the same rhyme. The rhyme scheme is AAA, BBB, CCC etc.
Enclosed rhyme: This has the rhyme scheme of ABBA.
Identical Rhyme
Identical rhyme is rhyming a word with itself by using the exact same word in the rhyming position. In some cases, the repeated word refers to a different meaning. For example:
- day by day, until the break of day
- I'll find my way, come what may / There must be a better way / No barriers do I see in the way
Another example is the way the word ground is used in Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could not Stop for Death."
"We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground —
The Roof was scarcely visible —
The Cornice — in the Ground."
Internal Rhyme/ Middle
With internal rhyme, rhyming occurs within lines of poetry. Sometimes the rhyming happens within a single line of poetry, but not always.
- Every day I say I wonder, if I may
- What could have been if only I were let in
- A new outcome perhaps, at least for some
- "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary" (from "The Raven," by Edgar Allen Poe)
Light Rhyme
With light rhyme, one syllable is stressed and another is not. Examples include:
- frog and dialog
- mat and combat
Macaronic Rhyme
Macaronic rhyme is a technique that rhymes words from different languages. Below, English words are on the left and words from other languages that rhyme with them are on the right.
favor and amor
sure and kreatur
lay and lei
guitar and sitar
Assonance in Rhyme
Assonance involves using repeated vowel sounds in words that are close to each other. It is sometimes referred to as a slant rhyme. There are many examples of assonance in poetry. This technique is also common in literature and prose. The following word combinations illustrate assonance.
- tip, slip and limp
- that, spat and bat
- bow, no and home
Consonance involves repeating consonant sounds in words that are close together. There are many examples of consonance, including:
- dump, dame and damp
- meter, miter and metric
- mile, mole and meal
Eye rhyme.
Two words that look similar on a page, but do not actually rhyme in spoken pronunciation. (Examples include food and Good “move” and “love,” or “hour” and “pour.”)
Masculine rhyme.
With masculine rhyme, the rhyme is based on a single stressed syllable in both words. Examples that illustrate masculine rhyme include:
- support and report
- dime and sublime
- divulge and bulge
- Feminine rhyme. A multi-syllable rhyme where both stressed and unstressed syllables rhyme with their respective counterparts. Or Feminine rhyme occurs when a word has two or more syllables that rhyme with each other For instance, the words “crazy” and “lazy” form feminine rhymes. The syllables “cra” and “la” are stressed rhymes, and “zy” and “zy” are unstressed rhymes.
- backing and hacking
- tricky and picky
- moaning and groaning
- generate and venerate.
Head Rhyme
Also called alliteration or initial rhyme, head rhyme has the same initial consonant at the beginning of the words. There are many examples of alliteration in poems. Head rhyme is also common in literature. Word pairs that illustrate head rhyme include:
blue and blow
sun and sand
merry and monkey
End rhymes. These are rhymes that occur between the final words on two particular lines of poetry. End rhymes can be either masculine (for instance “below” and “furlough”) or feminine (for instance “actual” and “factual”).
Near Rhyme
Near rhyme goes by several different names. This type of rhyme is also referred to as half, approximate, off, oblique, semi, or slant rhyme. It rhymes the final consonants of words, but not the vowels or initial consonants. Because the sounds do not exactly match, this type of rhyme is considered an imperfect rhyme. Examples include:
- blueprint and abhorrent
- quick and back
- fun and mean
- climb and thumb
Perfect Rhyme
A type of rhyme in which the stressed vowel sounds in both words are identical. Sometimes called exact, full or true, a perfect rhyme is the typical rhyme where the ending sounds match exactly.
Examples include:
- cat and hat
- egg and beg
- ink and pink
- boo and true
- soap and hope
Slant rhyme.
A rhyme in which the stressed syllables of ending consonants match, however the preceding vowel sounds do not match. For instance, in words such as “shape” and “keep” the consonance is very strong. The final consonant sounds remain similar, but the ending vowel sounds are different in half rhyme. Similar to these two words “moon” and “run,” and in the words “hold” and “bald,” the ending consonant sounds are similar, whereas vowel sounds are different.
A slant rhyme is also called a half rhyme, near rhyme, sprung rhyme, off rhyme, lazy rhyme, oblique rhyme, or approximate rhyme.
Half or slant rhyme must not be confused with para-rhyme or assonance. Although these two literary devices are, to some extent, similar to half rhyme, there is a slight difference between them. In para-rhyme, the ending and beginning consonant sounds are similar, such as in the words “rod” and “red.” In assonance, the vowel sounds are similar also, such as in “shot” and “lot.”
Rich Rhyme
Rich rhymes involve words that are pronounced the same but are not spelled alike and have different meanings. In other words, rich rhymes feature terms that are homonyms. Examples include:
- raise and raze
- break and brake
- vary and very
- lessen and lesson
Scarce Rhyme
Scarce rhyme is a type of imperfect rhyme used for words that have very few other words that rhyme with them. For example, not a lot of words sound like different.
- wisp rhymed with lips
- motionless with oceanless
Syllabic Rhyme
Syllabic rhyme involves rhyming the last syllable of words. It is also called tail rhyme or end rhyme.
- sliver and cleaver
- litter and latter
Wrenched Rhyme
Wrenched rhyme is an imperfect rhyme pattern. It rhymes a stressed with an unstressed syllable.
- caring and wing
- lady and a bee
