Arhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact samephonemes) in the finalstressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (perfect rhyming) is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic effect in the final position oflines withinpoems orsongs.[1] More broadly, a rhyme may also variously refer to other types of similar sounds near the ends of two or more words. Furthermore, the wordrhyme has come to be sometimes used as ashorthand term for any brief poem, such as anursery rhyme orBalliol rhyme.
The word derives fromOld French:rime orryme, which might be derived fromOld Frankish:rīm, a Germanic term meaning "series", or "sequence" attested inOld English (Old English:rīm meaning "enumeration", series", or "numeral") andOld High German:rīm, ultimately cognate toOld Irish:rím,Ancient Greek:ἀριθμός (arithmos "number"). Alternatively, the Old French words may derive fromLatin:rhythmus, fromAncient Greek:ῥυθμός (rhythmos,rhythm).[2][3]
The spellingrhyme (from the originalrime) was introduced at the beginning of theModern English period from a scholarly but likelyetymologically incorrect association with Latinrhythmus.[2] The older spellingrime survives in Modern English as a rare alternative spelling;cf.The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. A distinction between the spellings is also sometimes made in the study oflinguistics andphonology for whichrime orrhyme is used to refer to thenucleus andcoda of asyllable. Some prefer to spell itrime to distinguish it from the poetic rhyme covered by this article (seesyllable rime).
Rhyme partly seems to be enjoyed simply as a repeating pattern that is pleasant to hear. Rhyme is a form of art that one can use to communicate to the reader or audience.[4] It also serves as a powerfulmnemonic device, facilitating short-term memory.[5] The regular use oftail rhyme helps to mark off the ends of lines, thus clarifying the metrical structure for the listener. As with other poetic techniques, poets use it to suit their own purposes; for example,William Shakespeare often used a rhymingcouplet to mark off the end of a scene in a play.
The wordrhyme 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 ofpoetry rhyme if their final strong positions are filled with rhyming words. Examples aresight andflight,deign andgain,madness andsadness,love anddove.
In the general sense,general rhyme can refer to various kinds of phonetic similarity between words, and 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, orpitter,patter; the final syllable of the wordsbottle andfiddle is/l/, aliquid 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.
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.
Thoughhomophones andhomonyms 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. 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.[6][7] An example of such asuper-rhyme or "more than perfect rhyme" is theidentical rhyme, in which not only the vowels but also the onsets of the rhyming syllables are identical, as ingun andbegun. Punning rhymes, such asbare andbear 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 aholorhyme ("For I scream/For ice cream").
In poetics these would be consideredidentity, rather than 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.[8] Examples in English arecough,bough, andlove,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 is a kind of substitution rhyme similar torhyming 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 anticipates the word "sweet" instead of "sour", a mind rhyme has occurred.
Rhymes may be classified according to their position in the verse:
Tail rhyme (also calledend rhyme orrime 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 aspoken word rhyme style.
Holorime, mentioned above, occurs when two entire lines have the same sound.
Echo rhyme occurs when the same syllable endings are utilized (example: disease/ease).
Broken rhyme is a type ofenjambement 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.[8]
Arhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem.
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In many languages, including modern European languages and Arabic, poets use rhyme in set patterns as a structural element for specific poetic forms, such asballads,sonnets andrhyming couplets. Some rhyming schemes have become associated with a specific language, culture or period, while other rhyming schemes have achieved use across languages, cultures or time periods. However, the use of structural rhyme is not universal even within the European tradition. Much modern poetry avoids traditionalrhyme schemes.
The earliest surviving evidence of rhyming is the ChineseShi Jing (ca. 10th century BCE). Rhyme is also occasionally used in theBible.[9] In classical Greek and Latin poetry, rhyme was only an occasional feature.[10] For instance, Catullus includes partial rhymes in the poemCui dono lepidum novum libellum.[11] The ancient Greeks knew rhyme, and rhymes inThe Wasps byAristophanes are noted by a translator.[12]
Rhyme became a permanent - even obligatory - feature of poetry in Hebrew language, around the 4th century CE. It is found in theJewish liturgical poetry written in theByzantine empire era. This was realized by scholars only recently, thanks to the thousands ofpiyyuts that have been discovered in theCairo Geniza. It is assumed that the principle of rhyme was transferred from Hebrew liturgical poetry to the poetry of theSyriac Christianity (written inAramaic), and through this mediation introduced intoLatin poetry and then into all other languages ofEurope.[13]
Rhyme is central to classicalArabic poetry tracing back to its pre-Islamic roots. According to some archaic sources,Irish literature introduced the rhyme to Early Medieval Europe, but that is a disputed claim.[14] In the 7th century, the Irish had brought the art of rhyming verses to a high pitch of perfection. Theleonine verse is notable for introducing rhyme into High Medieval literature in the 12th century.
Rhyme entered European poetry in theHigh Middle Ages under the influence of theArabic language inAl Andalus (modern Spain).[15] Arabic language poets used rhyme extensively from the first development of literary Arabic in thesixth century, as in their long, rhymingqasidas.[16]
Since dialects vary and languages change over time, lines that rhyme in a given register or era may not rhyme in another, and it may not be clear how one should pronounce the words so that they rhyme. An example is this couplet fromHandel'sJudas Maccabaeus:
Rhymes were widely spread in theArabic language in pre-Islamic times, in letters, poems and songs, as well as long, rhymingqasidas.[16] In addition, theQuran uses a form of rhymed prose namedsaj'.
Rhyming in theCeltic languages takes a drastically different course from most other Western rhyming schemes despite strong contact with the Romance and English patterns. Even today, despite extensive interaction with English and French culture, Celtic rhyme continues to demonstrate native characteristics. Brian Ó Cuív sets out the rules of rhyme in Irish poetry of the classical period: the last stressed vowel and any subsequent long vowels must be identical in order for two words to rhyme. Consonants are grouped into six classes for the purpose of rhyme: they need not be identical, but must belong to the same class. Thus 'b' and 'd' can rhyme (both being 'voiced plosives'), as can 'bh' and 'l' (which are both 'voiced continuants') but 'l', a 'voiced continuant', cannot rhyme with 'ph', a 'voiceless continuant'. Furthermore, "for perfect rhyme a palatalized consonant may be balanced only by a palatalized consonant and a velarized consonant by a velarized one."[18] In the post-Classical period, these rules fell out of use, and in popular verse simple assonance often suffices, as can be seen in an example of Irish Gaelic rhyme from the traditional songBríd Óg Ní Mháille:
Besides the vowel/consonant aspect of rhyming,Chinese rhymes often includetone quality (that is,tonal contour) as an integral linguistic factor in determining rhyme.
Use of rhyme inClassical Chinese poetry typically but not always appears in the form of paired couplets, with end-rhyming in the final syllable of each couplet.
Another important aspect of rhyme in regard to Chinese language studies is the study or reconstruction of pastvarieties of Chinese, such asMiddle Chinese.
Asstress is important in English, lexical stress is one of the factors that affects the similarity of sounds for the perception of rhyme. Perfect rhyme can be defined as the case when two words rhyme if their final stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical.[8]
Some words in English, such as "orange" and "silver", are commonly regarded as having no rhyme. Although a clever writer can get around this (for example, by obliquely rhyming "orange" with combinations of words like "door hinge" or "more range", or with lesser-known words like "Blorenge" [a hill in Wales], or the surnameGorringe). Because it is generally easier to move the word out of rhyming position or replace it with asynonym ("orange" could become "amber", while "silver" could become a combination of "bright and argent"). A skilled orator might be able to tweak the pronunciation of certain words to facilitate a stronger rhyme (for example, pronouncing "orange" as "oringe" to rhyme with "door hinge").
The Measure isEnglish Heroic Verse without Rime, as that ofHomer inGreek, and ofVirgil inLatin; Rime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac't indeed since by the use of some famous modern Poets, carried away by Custom ...
Rhymes, meters, stanza forms, etc., are like servants. If the master is fair enough to win their affection and firm enough to command their respect, the result is an orderly happy household. If he is too tyrannical, they give notice; if he lacks authority, they become slovenly, impertinent, drunk and dishonest.
Forced or clumsy rhyme is often a key ingredient ofdoggerel.
InFrench poetry, unlike in English, it is common to haveidentical rhymes, in which not only the vowels of the final syllables of the lines rhyme, but their onset consonants ("consonnes d'appui") as well. To the ear of someone accustomed to English verse, this often sounds like a very weak rhyme. For example, an English perfect rhyme of homophones,flour andflower, would seem weak, whereas a French rhyme of homophonesdoigt ("finger") anddoit ("must") orpoint ("point") andpoint ("not") is not only acceptable but quite common.
Rhymes are sometimes classified into the categories of "rime pauvre" ("poor rhyme"), "rime suffisante" ("sufficient rhyme"), "rime riche" ("rich rhyme") and "rime richissime" ("very rich rhyme"), according to the number of rhyming sounds in the two words or in the parts of the two verses. For example, to rhyme "tu" with "vu" would be a poor rhyme (the words have only the vowel in common), to rhyme "pas" with "bras" a sufficient rhyme (with the vowel and the silent consonant in common), and "tante" with "attente" a rich rhyme (with the vowel, the onset consonant, and the coda consonant with its mute "e" in common). Authorities disagree, however, on exactly where to place the boundaries between the categories.
Classical French rhyme not only differs from English rhyme in its different treatment of onset consonants. It also treats coda consonants in a distinctive way.
French spelling includes several final letters that are no longer pronounced and that in many cases have never been pronounced. Such final unpronounced letters continue to affect rhyme according to the rules of Classical French versification.
The most important "silent" letter is the "mute e". In spoken French today, final "e" is, in some regional accents (in Paris for example), omitted after consonants; but in Classical French prosody, it was considered an integral part of the rhyme even when following the vowel. "Joue" could rhyme with "boue", but not with "trou". Rhyming words ending with this silent "e" were said to make up a "double rhyme", while words not ending with this silent "e" made up a "single rhyme". It was a principle of stanza-formation that single and double rhymes had to alternate in the stanza. Virtually all 17th-century French plays in verse alternate masculine and feminineAlexandrin couplets.
The now-silent final consonants present a more complex case. They, too, were traditionally an integral part of the rhyme, such that "pont" rhymed with "vont" but not with "long". (The voicing of consonants was lost in liaison and thus ignored, so "pont" also rhymed with "rond".) There are a few rules that govern most word-final consonants in archaic French pronunciation:
The distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants is lost in the final position. Therefore, "d" and "t" (both pronounced /t/) rhyme. So too with "c", "g" and "q" (all /k/), and "s", "x" and "z" (all /z/). Rhymes ending in /z/ are called "plural rhymes" because most plural nouns and adjectives end in "s" or "x".
Nasal vowels rhyme whether spelled with "m" or "n" (e.g., "essaim" rhymes with "sain").
If a word ends in a stop consonant followed by "s", the stop is silent and ignored for purposes of rhyming (e.g., "temps" rhymes with "dents"). In the archaic orthography some of these silent stops are omitted from the spelling as well (e.g., "dens" for "dents").
Holorime is an extreme example ofrime richissime spanning an entire verse.Alphonse Allais was a notable exponent of holorime. Here is an example of a holorime couplet fromMarc Monnier:
Gall, amant de la Reine, alla (tour magnanime) Galamment de l'Arène à la Tour Magne, à Nîmes.
Translation:
Gallus, the Queen's lover, went (a magnanimous gesture) Gallantly from the Arena to the Great Tower, at Nîmes.
BecauseGerman phonology features a wide array of vowel sounds, certain imperfect rhymes are widely admitted in German poetry. These include rhyming "e" with "ä" and "ö", rhyming "i" with "ü", rhyming "ei" with "eu" (spelled "äu" in some words) and rhyming a long vowel with its short counterpart.
Ancient Greek poetry was strictly metrical, based on matching the rhythms of syllables with long and short vowels between lines. Rhyme is used, if at all, only as an occasional rhetorical flourish.
The first Greek to write rhyming poetry was the fourteenth-century CretanStephanos Sachlikis. However in modern Greek poetry, rhyme is a common fixture.
AncientHebrew rarely employed rhyme, e.g., inExodus 29 35: ועשית לאהרן ולבניו כָּכה, ככל אשר צויתי אֹתָכה (the identical part in both rhyming words being / 'axa/ ). Rhyme became a permanent - even obligatory - feature of poetry in Hebrew language, around the 4th century CE. It is found in theJewish liturgical poetry written in theByzantine empire era. This was realized by scholars only recently, thanks to the thousands ofpiyyuts that have been discovered in theCairo Geniza. It is assumed that the principle of rhyme was transferred from Hebrew liturgical poetry to the poetry of theSyriac Christianity (written inAramaic), and through this mediation introduced intoLatin poetry and then into all other languages ofEurope.[13]
Tail rhyme was occasionally used, as in this piece of poetry byCicero:
O Fortunatamnatam me consuleRomam.
Translation:
O fortunate Rome, to be born with me consul
Buttail rhyme was not used as a prominent structural feature ofLatin poetry until it was introduced under the influence of local vernacular traditions in the earlyMiddle Ages. This is theLatinhymnDies Irae:
Dies irae, dies illa Solvet saeclum in favilla Teste David cum Sybilla
Translation:
The day of wrath, that day which will reduce the world to ashes, as foretold by David and the Sybil.
Medieval poetry may mix Latin andvernacular languages. Mixing languages in verse or rhyming words in different languages is termedmacaronic.
In Polish literature rhyme was used from the beginning. Unrhymed verse was never popular, although it was sometimes imitated from Latin.Homer's,Virgil's and evenMilton's epic poems were furnished with rhymes by Polish translators.[19] Because of paroxytonic accentuation in Polish, feminine rhymes always prevailed. Rules of Polish rhyme were established in 16th century. Then only feminine rhymes were allowed in syllabic verse system. Together with introducing syllabo-accentual metres, masculine rhymes began to occur in Polish poetry. They were most popular at the end of 19th century. The most frequent rhyme scheme in Old Polish (16th - 18th centuries) was couplet AABBCCDD..., but Polish poets, having perfect knowledge of Italian language and literature, experimented with other schemes, among othersottava rima (ABABABCC) andsonnet (ABBA ABBA CDC DCD or ABBA ABBA CDCD EE).
Wpłynąłem na suchego przestwór oceanu, Wóz nurza się w zieloność i jak łódka brodzi, Śród fali łąk szumiących, śród kwiatów powodzi, Omijam koralowe ostrowy burzanu.
Across sea-meadows measureless I go, My wagon sinking under grass so tall The flowery petals in foam on me fall, And blossom-isles float by I do not know.[20]
The metre of Mickiewicz's sonnet is thePolish alexandrine (tridecasyllable, in Polish "trzynastozgłoskowiec"): 13(7+6) and its rhymes are feminine: [anu] and [odzi].
Rhyme was introduced intoRussian poetry in the 18th century. Folk poetry had generally been unrhymed, relying more on dactylic line endings for effect. Two words ending in an accented vowel are only considered to rhyme if they share a preceding consonant. Vowel pairs rhyme—even though non-Russian speakers may not perceive them as the same sound. Consonant pairs rhyme if both are devoiced. As in French, formal poetry traditionally alternates between masculine and feminine rhymes.
Early 18th-century poetry demanded perfect rhymes that were also grammatical rhymes—namely that noun endings rhymed with noun endings, verb endings with verb endings, and so on. Such rhymes relying on morphological endings become much rarer in modern Russian poetry, and greater use is made of approximate rhymes.[21]
As in French, rhymes are divided intomasculine and feminine according to whether the word is stressed on the last or second-to-last syllable. Two different masculine rhymes or two feminine rhymes cannot normally occur in succeeding lines. Rhyme schemes involving words stressed on the third-to-last syllable or earlier in the word are found in some poems but are relatively rare, especially in longer poetry.
As in French, two words with the same pronunciation but different meanings can be rhymed, e.g.,супру́га ("wife") andсупру́га ("husband's").
Words ending in a stressed vowel (e.g.,вода́) can only rhyme with other words which share the consonant preceding the vowel (e.g.,когда́).
Words ending in a stressed vowel preceded by another vowel, as well as words ending in a stressed vowel preceded by /j/, can all be rhymed with each other:моя́,тая́ andчья all rhyme.
According to Nabokov, a special dispensation is made forлюбви́, an inflected form ofлюбо́вь ("love"), allowing it to be rhymed with all words ending in a vowel followed by /ˈi/ (e.g.,твои́). Some poets, including Pushkin, go further and rhymeлюбви́ with any word ending in /ˈi/.
Unstressedа andо (e.g.,жа́ло andУра́ла) can be rhymed with each other. For most contemporary Russian speakers these letters when unstressed are pronounced identically as /ə/. See alsovowel reduction in Russian andakanye.
In unstressed syllables, /ɨ/, /ɨj/ and /əj/ are considered more or less equivalent: thusза́лы,ма́лый andа́лой can all be rhymed. Nabokov describes rhyming /ɨ/ with /ɨj/ as "not inelegant" and rhyming /ɨj/ with /əj/ as "absolutely correct".
Patterns of rich rhyme (prāsa) play a role in modern Sanskrit poetry, but only to a minor extent in historical Sanskrit texts. They are classified according to their position within thepada (metrical foot):ādiprāsa (first syllable),dvitīyākṣara prāsa (second syllable),antyaprāsa (final syllable) etc.
Spanish mainly differentiates two types of rhymes:
rima consonante (consonant rhyme): Those words of the same stress with identical endings, matching consonants and vowels, for example robo (robbery) and lobo (wolf), legua (league) and yegua (mare) or canción (song) and montón (pile).
rima asonante (assonant rhyme): those words of the same stress that only the vowels identical at the end, for example zapato (shoe) and brazo (arm), ave (bird) and ame (would love), reloj (watch) and feroz (fierce), puerta (door) and ruleta (roulette).
Spanish rhyme is also classified by stress type since different types cannot rhyme with each other:
rima llana (plane rhyme): the rhyming words are unaccented, for example cama (bed) and rama (branch), pereza (laziness) and moneda (coin) or espejo (mirror) and pienso (I think).
rima grave (oxytonic rhyme): The rhyming words are accented on the last syllable, for example: cartón (cardboard) and limón (lemon), jerez (sherry) and revés (backwards). Grave words that end in a single same vowel can be asonante rhymes for example compró (he/she bought) and llevó (he/she carried), tendré (I will have) and pediré (I will ask), perdí (I lost) and medí (I measured).
rima esdrújula (odd rhyme): The rhyming words are accented on theantepenult. For example, mácula (stain) and báscula (scale), estrépito (noise) and intrépido (fearless), rápido (fast) and pálido (pallid).
There are some unique rhyming schemes in Dravidian languages like Tamil. Specifically, the rhyme calledetukai (anaphora) occurs on the second consonant of each line.
Rhymes are called Qafiya in Urdu. Qafiya has a very important place in Urdu Poetry. No couplet of UrduGhazal is complete without a Qafiya.[22] Following is an example of an Urdu couplet fromFaiz Ahmed Faiz's ghazal
dono jahaan teri mohabbat meinhaar ke, wo jaa rahaa hai koi shab e ghumguzaar ke[23]
haar andguzaar are qafiyas in this couplet because of rhyming.
Rhymes are used inVietnamese to producesimiles. The following is an example of a Rhyming Simile:
Nghèo như conmèo /ŋɛu ɲɯ kɔnmɛu/ "Poor as a cat"
Compare the above Vietnamese example, which is arhyming simile, to the English phrase "(as) poor as a church mouse", which is only asemantic simile.[24]
^See p. 98 in Thuy Nga Nguyen andGhil'ad Zuckermann (2012), "Stupid as a Coin: Meaning and Rhyming Similes in Vietnamese",International Journal of Language Studies 6 (4), pp. 97–118.
