The repetition of the same or a similar syllable, for rhetorical effect, typically at the end of a poetic line. Rhyme was rarely found in the classical literatures, developing only with late Latin - it is suggested, to aid memorizing and recitation. There is a limitless variety of rhyme schemes, from the simple rhyming couplet to open rhyme schemes such as that employed in Milton's Lycidas. Several 20th-c poets explored half-rhyme, as in Wilfred Owen's Strange Meeting, where friend/frowned and killed/cold are rhymes.
The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.History
The earliest surviving evidence of rhyming is the Chinese Shi Jing (ca.
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".
Perfect rhymes can be classified according to the number of syllables included in the rhyme
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 ('cacophonies", "Aristophanes")In the general sense, "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:
imperfect: a rhyme between a stressed and an unstressed syllable. (wing, caring) semirhyme: a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word. (shake, hate)It has already been remarked that in a perfect rhyme the last stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical in both words. An example of such a "super-rhyme" is the "identical rhyme", in which the not only the vowels but also the onsets of the rhyming syllables are identical, as in gun and begun. Punning rhymes such are "bare" and "bear" are also identical rhymes.
The last type of rhyme is the sight (or eye), or similarity in spelling but not in sound, as with cough, bough, or love, move. For example, "sea" and "grey" rhymed in the early eighteenth century, though now they would make at best an eye rhyme.
The preceding classification has been based on the nature of the rhyme; but we may also classify rhymes according to their position in the verse:
tail rhyme (or end): a rhyme in the final syllable(s) of a verse (the most common kind) When a word at the end of the line rhymes within a word in the interior of the line, it is called an internal rhyme. Holorhyme has already been mentioned, by which not just two individual words, but two entire lines rhyme.A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem.
Rhyme in English
Old English poetry is mostly alliterative verse. One of the earliest rhyming poems in English is The Rhyming Poem.
Some words in English, such as orange, are commonly regarded as having no rhyme. Although a clever poet can get around this (for example, by rhyming "orange" with "door hinge"), it is generally easier to move the word out of rhyming position or replace it with a synonym ("orange" could become "amber").
The most famous brief remarks in English on rhyme are John Milton's preface to Paradise Lost, which begins
THE Measure is English Heroic Verse without Rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin;Rhyme in French
In French poetry, unlike in English, it is common to have "identical rhymes", in which not only the vowels of the final syllables of the lines rhyme, but their onset consonants ("consonnes d'appui") as well. For example, an English perfect rhyme of homophones flour and flower, would seem weak, whereas a French rhyme of homophones doigt and doit is not only common but quite acceptable.
Rhymes are sometimes classified into the categories "rime pauvre" ("poor rhyme"), "rime suffisante" ("sufficient rhyme"), "rime rich" ("rich rhyme") and "rime richissime" ("very rich rhyme"), according to the number of rhyming sounds in the two words. For example to rhyme "parla" with "sauta" 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).
Classical French rhyme does not differ from English rhyme only in its different treatment of onset consonants. Rhyming words ending with this silent "e" were said to make up a "feminine rhyme", while words not ending with this silent "e" made up a "masculine rhyme". They, too, were considered an integral part of the rhyme, so that "pont" could rhyme only with "vont" not with "long"; but this cannot be reduced to a simple rule about the spelling, since "pont" would also rhyme with "rond" even though one word ends in "t" and the other in "d". There are a few simple rules that govern word-final consonants in French prosody:
The consonants must "rhyme" give or take their voicing. (Rhyming words ending with a silent "s" "x" or "z" are called "plural rhymes".) Nasal vowels rhyme no matter what their spelling. ("Essaim" can rhyme with "sain", but not with "saint" because the final "t" counts in "saint".) If the word ends in a consonant cluster, only the final consonant counts. ("Temps" rhymes with "lents" because both end in "s".)All this comes from the fact that the letters that are now silent used to be sounded.
Rhyme in Hebrew
Ancient Hebrew verse did not generally rhyme. However, many Jewish liturgical poems rhyme today, because they were mostly written in medieval Europe, where rhymes were in vogue.
Rhyme in Greek
Medieval poetry may mix Latin and vernacular languages. Mixing languages in verse or rhyming words in different languages is termed macaronic.
Rhyme in Sanskrit
Patterns of rich rhyme (prāsa) play a role in modern Sanskrit poetry, but only to a minor extent in historical Sanskrit texts;
Rhyme in Welsh
Rhyme in Tamil
There are some unique rhyming schemes in Dravidian languages like Tamil. Specifically, the rhyme called 'edukai'(anaphora) rhymes on the beginning of subsequent line of a poem.
Some classical Tamil poetry forms, such as Venpa, have rigid grammars for rhyme to the point that they could be expressed as a context-free grammar.
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