Do We Rhyme or Not?
Today’s ‘Tuesday’s Tip Jar’ comes you by the letter ‘R’:
Rhymester Rhymes Rigorous Radiance Radiates Radius
We will look into one of the most basic elements of poetry in our post today, the element of ‘rhyme’.
The repetition of syllables, typically at the end of a verse line. Rhymed words conventionally share all sounds following the word’s last stressed syllable. Thus “tenacity” and “mendacity” rhyme, but not “jaundice” and “John does,” or “tomboy” and “calm bay.”
The Foundation also states rhyme scheme as usually being the pattern of end rhymes in a stanza, with each rhyme encoded by a letter of the alphabet, from a onward (ABBA BCCB, for example).
Rhymes also get “classified by the degree of similarity between sounds within words, and by their placement within the lines or stanzas’, whether they be ‘
end rhyme‘,
‘identical rhyme’, or ‘
internal rhyme’. You can see the full list of the type of rhymes
here.
The question, then becomes, ‘Do we rhyme or not?’, when we pen our poems to the page.
Pretty rare to find an adequate answer to such a question. To be honest, it comes down to a personal preference, whether the preference stands for all of a poets work or for each individual poem.
If you read any of my poetry on my
site, then you will see my preference ranges from no rhymes at all to end rhymes with a scheme of ‘ABAB’ or ‘ABCA’ to internal rhyme.
So, do we rhyme or not? Does rhyme make or break a poem?
The answer — yes and no.
Sometimes rhyme enhances a poem and allows it to be more memorable; henceforth, why most people can recite Nursery Rhymes because they have the quality of rhyme. However, some poems, including some of my own, would not make sense in any fashion if they rhymed to any point of rhyme scheme. The aspect to make such poems to rhyme would would be drastic to their meaning or definition, ideas presented.
Poetry Magnets
John C. Ransom states, “Now between the meanings of words and their sounds there is ordinarily no discoverable relation except one of accident; and it is therefore miraculous, to the mystic, when words which make sense can also make a uniform objective structure of accents and rhymes.”
And so it stands with poets, whether a finished poem rhymes or not, a poet will look upon the words and marvel over how well they work with one another.
With such things, just write and if you end up in rhymes, then great and if you end up with no rhyme at all in your poem, then great. Put your sails up with your pen and see what happens.
~By: A.J. Wagoner
*CHALLENGE* Write two poems in fifteen minutes. Write one poem with some sort of rhyme scheme and the other with no rhyme at all. Share them in the comments and let’s look into if rhyme/no rhyme helps or hinders either poem. Also, comment on any others who post. Thanks!
Whenever people say things like “It’s not a poem if it doesn’t rhyme,” I have to wonder if they also think “If it’s not ballet, it’s not dancing” and “The only real painters use oil paints.”
I so agree Gabriel! It applies to a lot of different things really, dancing and painting are great examples though.
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