All Topics  
Half rhyme

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Half rhyme
 
 
  Topics Half rhyme Topic Home

Half rhyme, sometimes called slant, sprung, near rhyme, oblique rhyme, off rhyme or imperfect rhyme is consonance
Consonance

Consonance is a stylistic device, often used in poetry characterized by the repetition of two or more consonants using different vowels, for example, the "i" and "a" followed by the "tter" sound in "pitter patter." It repeats the consonant sounds but not vowel sounds....
 on the final consonants of the words involved. Many half rhymes are also eye rhyme
Eye rhyme

Eye rhyme, also called visual rhyme and sight rhyme, is a similarity in spelling between words that are pronounced differently and hence, not an auditory rhyme....
s. It is widely used in Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and Icelandic verse
Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
. Some examples are ill and shell and also dropped and wept.

Half rhyme has been found in English-language poetry as early as Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan was a Welsh people metaphysical poet and medical practitioner. Vaughan was born to Thomas Vaughan and Denise Morgan at 'Trenewydd', Newton , in Brecknockshire, Wales....
, but it was not until it was used in the works of W.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Half rhyme'
Start a new discussion about 'Half rhyme'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Half rhyme, sometimes called slant, sprung, near rhyme, oblique rhyme, off rhyme or imperfect rhyme is consonance
Consonance

Consonance is a stylistic device, often used in poetry characterized by the repetition of two or more consonants using different vowels, for example, the "i" and "a" followed by the "tter" sound in "pitter patter." It repeats the consonant sounds but not vowel sounds....
 on the final consonants of the words involved. Many half rhymes are also eye rhyme
Eye rhyme

Eye rhyme, also called visual rhyme and sight rhyme, is a similarity in spelling between words that are pronounced differently and hence, not an auditory rhyme....
s. It is widely used in Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and Icelandic verse
Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
. Some examples are ill and shell and also dropped and wept.

Half rhyme has been found in English-language poetry as early as Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan was a Welsh people metaphysical poet and medical practitioner. Vaughan was born to Thomas Vaughan and Denise Morgan at 'Trenewydd', Newton , in Brecknockshire, Wales....
, but it was not until it was used in the works of W. B. Yeats and Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins , was an England poet, Roman Catholicism convert, and Society of Jesus priest, whose 20th-century fame established him posthumously among the leading Victorian poets....
 that half rhyme became popular among English-language poets. In the 20th century half-rhyme has been used widely by English poets. Often, as in most of Yeats's poems, it is mixed with other devices such as regular rhymes, assonance
Assonance

Assonance is repetition of vowel to create internal rhyme within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and Literary consonance serves as one of the building blocks of Poetry....
, and para-rhymes. In the following example the 'rhymes' are on/moon and bodies/ladies:
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,


American poet Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life....
 also used slant rhyme frequently in her work. In her poem "Hope is the thing with feathers" the slant rhyme appears in the second and fourth lines. In the following example the 'rhyme' is soul/all.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.


See also

  • Perfect rhyme
    Perfect rhyme

    A perfect rhyme — also called a full rhyme, exact rhyme, or true rhyme — is when the later part of the word or phrase is identical sounding to another....


External links

  • - Free site for finding near rhymes and alliterations