ENGL 309 Chapter 5: Repetition and Rhyme Musical Devices • Alliteration: Repetition of the consonant sound at the beginning of two or more words on the same line. • Example: Strange power of song the strain that warms the heart • Consonance: Repetition of the consonant sound at the end of two or more words on the same line. • Example: Methought I saw my late espousèd saint • Assonance: Repetition of the vowel sound (exactly the same sound, and you can check the pronunciation symbol in the dictionary) in two or more words on the same line • Example: Rescued from Death by force, though pale and faint • If you look up the words “pale” and “faint” in the dictionary, you’ll find their phonetic symbols for the vowels to be the same: “peɪl” and “feɪnt”, so we can conclude that we have assonance here. Items Excluded from Musical Devices • The word that can be used for musical devices should be important enough to attract the attention of the reader, and it should have significance in terms of the poem’s meaning. So, you should the word carefully so it is not simply functional for grammar or of very slight importance in the line or in the poem. • Examples of words excluded from musical devices: • Prepositions: e.g. in, on, between, of, for, with, under, over, below, above, round • Pronouns: e.g. she, he, they, we, they, them, who, which, • Articles: a, an, the Rhyme • Rhyme is when you have two words with the same vowel (assonance) and the same consonant (consonance) at the end of the words. The combination of Vowel + Consonant in a word is called a syllable, and some words have one syllable and others have two or more syllables. • Examples of one-syllable words: life, love, world, heart, eye, month, tree, death, time, green • Examples of two-syllable words: avoid, basket, Bible, brilliant, mountain, photo, playful, daring, discuss, evening, evil • Rhyme can be divided into two types: Perfect, where the syllables rhyme with identical sounds (same vowel + same consonant), and imperfect rhyme, where the sounds rhyming are not identical. • Perfect rhyme can be divided into: 1) Masculine Rhyme • In masculine rhyme only one syllable (stressed) rhyming at the end of two or more words, within the same line (internal rhyme) or at the end of two or more lines (end rhyme). • Example of masculine end rhyme: When we for age could neither read nor write, The subject made us able to indite • Examples of masculine internal rhyme: The ship was cheer’d, the harbour clear’d, And every day, for food or play, In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,.. Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmer’d the white moonshine … 2) Feminine Rhyme • In feminine rhyme two or more syllables rhyming in two or more words, within the same line (internal rhyme) or at the end of two or more lines (end rhyme). • Examples of feminine end rhyme: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted, Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion; A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted With shifting change, as is false women’s fashion... But since she prick’d thee out for women’s pleasure, Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure. • Example of internal feminine rhyme: Jenny would go in a domino…. While I attended, clad in a splendid… Now we had arranged, through notes exchanged… At Number Four to waltz no more… Approximate Rhyme • This, together with half rhyme, is called imperfect rhyme because the sounds rhyming are not identical (not exactly the same both of them, vowel and consonant). This is different from perfect rhyme, where you have rhyming vowel sounds and rhyming consonant sounds in two or more words. So, in perfect rhyme you have assonance and consonance, while in approximate rhyme you have either assonance or consonance but not both. • In approximate rhyme, you have the same vowel sound but with a different consonant in two or more words: • Examples: bug/bun, mix/tick, heart/bar, slope/cone • Or, you may have the same consonant but with a different vowel sound: • Examples: bug/bag, map/shape, abroad/head, friend/frowned/killed/cold Half Rhyme • Half rhyme is like masculine rhyme with a difference. In masculine rhyme you have rhyme in only one syllable, in the last syllable, which has to be the stressed syllable in a word. • In half rhyme, you also have rhyme in one syllable, but the syllable is either at the beginning (not at the end): • Example: lightly/frightful • Or it’s at the end but it is not the stressed syllable: • Example: yellow/willow Eye Rhyme • This is when two words seem to rhyme, because of the identical spelling of a certain syllable, but they actually don’t rhyme, because of their different pronunciation: • Examples: move/love bough/though come/home flood/brood An example from poetry: The great man down, you mark his favourite flies; The poor advanced makes friends of enemies. Onomatopoeia •When the pronunciation of the word imitates (is similar to) the sound of the thing to which it refers, making the description more vivid, expressive, and interesting. •Examples: •The buzzing (sound of a bee or fly) bee flew away. •The gushing (sound of water pushing) stream flows in the forest. •The sack fell into the river with a splash (sound of something falling in water). •The books fell on the table with a loud thump (sound of something falling on a hard surface). •She heard the roaring (making a deep, loud sound like that of a lion) thunder and thought of the rain soon to fall. •The use of ‘O’ or ‘Oh’ (imitates the sound of somebody wondering or in pain) •Example: •Look at the stars! look, look up at the skies! O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air! • The word ‘ooze’, meaning: (of a fluid) flow in a gradual way. Example of two separate lines: The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Refrain • Repetition of fixed patterns such as lines, phrases, sentences, stanzas, or words in a poem, exactly or with a slight difference. In the case of a word, it has to be an important word repeated on the same line. • Example: It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know… …………………………………………………………………………… I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love— I and my Annabel Lee… Rhyme Scheme • The pattern of end rhymes in the poem, which is usually referred to by using the same letters to indicate identical sounds: • Example: Past ruined Ilion Helen lives, A Alcestis rises from the shades. B Verse calls them forth; 'tis verse that gives A Immortal youth to mortal maids. B Soon shall oblivion's deepening veil C Hide all the peopled hills you see, D The gay, the proud, while lovers hail C These many summers you and me. D
