Vocabulary
Brian Miller
Erica Johns

Rhyme is the repetition in two or more
nearby words of the last stressed vowel
and all the syllables that follow it.
Rhyme

Most rhymes occur at the end of the
poetic line, the term for which is end
rhyme.
◦ The rhyme may consist of only one syllable, or
it may have multiple syllables.
 ex: Duck and Truck- one , Funny and Bunnymultiple.
End Rhyme

Rhymes that end on a stressed syllable
are called masculine and rhymes that end
on an unstressed syllable are called
feminine.
◦ ex: fond and pond are masculine, while
attention and dimension are feminine.
End Rhymes Cont’d

Rhymes may occur within a line of poetry
rather than at the end, this is called
internal rhyme
◦ Ex: And binding with briars my joys and
desires.
From “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
Internal Rhyme

In scanning a poem, rhymes are marked
with letters of the alphabet, with the first
rhyme designated as A, the second B, etc.
◦ The pattern of recurrences is called a rhyme
scheme.
◦ Some stanzaic patterns are identified by
particular rhymes schemes
 Ex: Sonnet, Couplet, and Ballad Meter
Rhyme Scheme

When the rhyming sounds match exactly,
the rhyme is called perfect.
◦ An alternative form is eye rhyme, in which
words look on the page like perfect rhymes but
are pronounced differently.
 Ex: look and book are perfect while, cover and
over are classified as eye rhyme.
Perfect and Imperfect Rhyme

Rhymes may also be partial rather than
perfect, varying the corresponding vowel
sounds and/or the consonant sounds. This
can be classified as imperfect, half, off, or
slant rhyme.
Cont’d