Name___________________________ Date__________________ Period______
Rhyme
We all love rhyme. Rhyme is a repeating pattern in poetry that is pleasant to hear.
It also helps to memorize the poetry that we read. Rhyme can be as simple as the
pairing of moth with cloth or a bit more complicated, like antelope matched with
cantaloupe.
Most rhymes are made by pairing the last word in one line with the last word in
another line. Rhymes formed in this way are called end rhymes because they
come at the end of the sentence.
Perfect rhyme is when the end rhyme is identical sounding to that of another.
Seamus Heaney’s “Digging:”
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground. Slant Rhymes (sometimes called half rhyme) is when the end rhyme shares just a
vowel sound (assonance – heart and star) or just a consonant sound (consonance –
milk and walk or bent and ant.)
The following example is also from Seamus Heaney’s “Digging:”
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Internal Rhyme is when a word in the beginning or middle of a line rhymes with
the word at the end of the line.
"In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud."
"Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white."
Internal rhyme is common rap songs.
“
Am as vicious as the realest you know,
only difference is consistence, I’m considered a pro.”
Here are some excerpts from poems. In the blank, write whether the poem would best be
considered an example of perfect rhyme, slant rhyme, or internal rhyme.
1. _____________________
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door –
Only this and nothing more.”
2. _____________________
Now the Star-bellied Sneetches had bellies with stars.
The Plain-bellied Sneetches had none upon thars.
The stars weren't so big; they were really quite small.
You would think such a thing wouldn't matter at all.
But because they had stars, all the Star-bellied Sneetches
would brag, "We're the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.
3. _____________________
When have I last looked on
The round green eyes and the long wavering bodies
Of the dark leopards of the moon?
All the wild witches, those most noble ladies,
4. _____________________
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
5. _____________________
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.
6. _____________________
My unusual style will confuse you a while
If I were water, I'd flow in the Nile
So many rhymes you won't have time to go for yours
Just because of applause I have to pause
Right after tonight is when I prepare
To catch another weaker MC out there
My strategy has to be tragedy, catastrophe
And after this you'll call me your majesty...