An Introduction to Rhyme

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An Introduction To Rhyme (ISBN 1-85725-124-5) is a book by Peter Dale which was published by Agenda/Bellew in 1998. The first chapter gives a detailed and comprehensive categorization of forty types of rhymeavailable in English.

Traditional pure rhyme

Dale identifies the following varieties of Traditional Pure Rhyme:

1. Single Pure Rhyme (example: cat / mat)
2. Double Pure Rhyme (example: silly / Billy)
3. Triple Pure Rhyme (example: mystery / history)
4. Eye rhyme (example: love / move)
5. Near rhyme (example: breath / deaf)
6. Wrenched stress rhyme (example: bent / firmament)
7. Wrenched Sense Rhyme

Pararhyme

Dale identifies the following varieties of Pararhyme:

1. Single Pararhyme (example: hill / Hell)
2. Double Pararhyme (example: Satan / satin)
3. Triple Pararhyme (example: summery / Samurai)
4. Double Pararhyme Mixed Form (example: lover / liver)
5. Triple Pararhyme Mixed Form (example: mystery / mastery)
6. Near Pararhyme (example: live / leaf)

Assonance rhyme

Dale identifies the following varieties of Assonance Rhyme:

1. Single Assonance with Head Rhyme (example: feast / feed)
2. Double Assonance with Head Rhyme (example: fever / feature)
3. Triple Assonance with Head Rhyme (example: rosary / ropery)

Pure assonance rhyme

1. Single Pure Assonance Rhyme (example: leaves / feast)
2. Double Pure Assonance Rhyme (example: babies / lady)
3. Triple Pure Assonance Rhyme (example: Cerements / temperance)

Consonance rhyme

1. Head rhyme (example: leaves / lance)
2. Final consonance also known as Half rhyme (example: spot / cut)

Syllable rhyme

Dale identifies the following types of Syllable Rhyme:

1. Pure Syllable Rhyme (example: belfry / selfish)
2. Syllable Pararhyme (example: tractive / truckle)
3. Syllable Assonance (example: shadow / matter)
4. Syllable Assonance with Head Rhyme (example: shadow / shackle);

Uneven rhyme

Dale describes three types of Uneven Rhyme:

1. Simple Uneven Rhyme (example: ten / oven)
2. Uneven Rhyme combined with Pararhyme (example: pen / open)
3. Uneven Rhyme with Reduced Stress (example: house-boat / top-coat)

Other types of rhyme

Dale also identifies the following types of rhyme:

1. Light rhyme (rhyme on unstressed syllables; example: shallow / minnow')
2. Consonant chime (example from Dylan Thomas: ferrule / folly / angle / valley / coral / mile)
3. Alternation (alternation of masculine and feminine endings, a sort of rhythmic rhyme)
4. Analytic rhyme (complex patterns, example of pararhyme abba and assonance abab in Auden: began / flush/ flash / gun)
5. Off-centred rhyme (placing rhyme in unexpected places mid-line)
6. Mirror rhyme (example: nude / dune)
7. Generic rhyme (rhyme based on phonetic groups of consonants; example: father / harder / carver)
8. Cynghanedd
9. Echo rhyme (example, line ending in disease? Ease.)
10. Identity rhyme (repetition of word)
11. Repetition (repetition of line)
12. Spatial rhyme

Tetrasyllables

 

• primus paeon: long-short-short-short
• secundus paeon: short-long-short-short
• tertius paeon: short-short-long-short
• quartus paeon: short-short-short-long

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• first epitrite: short-long-long-long
• second epitrite: long-short-long-long
• third epitrite: long-long-short-long
• fourth epitrite: long-long-long-short

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• minor ionic, or double iamb: short-short-long-long
• major ionic: long-long-short-short

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• diamb: short-long-short-long
• ditrochee: long-short-long-short

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• antispast: short-long-long-short
• choriamb: long-short-short-long

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• tetrabrach or proceleusmatic: short-short-short-short
• dispondee: long-long-long-long

Measures of verse

Types of metre

Below, "short/long" definitions of a syllable of classical languages correspond to "stressed/unstressed" of English language.

• Iamb: short-long
• Trochee or Choreus, choree: long-short
• Spondee: long-long
• Pyrrhic or dibrach: short-short
• Dactyl: long-short-short
• Anapaest or antivdactylus: short-short-long
• Amphibrach: short-long-short
• Amphimacer or cretic: long-short-long
• Molossus: long-long-long
• Tribrach: short-short-short