Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 01:09:23 -0800 (PST)
From: StreetWrites 
Subject: {poetry} SETUP: Second basic exercise

Back to basics.

I may have covered too much in this one lesson, again.  Give suggestions
on how to break it down, if you would.  I also need a few more examples.

I used several different sources.  I've tried not to quote anybody
verbatim, but I do intend to list the sources in the "published" version.

---

Rhyme Time
----------

	There is more debate over rhyme in poetry than there is over
rhythm in poetry.  Opinions run from "If it doesn't rhyme it isn't
poetry!" to "If it rhymes it's doggerel - not poetry!"
	We aren't going to settle that debate in this exercise.  We aren't
even going to get into it.  What we are going to do is 

1) Introduce you to the technical terms for different kinds of rhyme, so
you can understand any learned debates you happen to tune into;

2) Show you some of the uses of rhyme, so that you can catch poets using
it and report on them accurately;

3) Get you hearing echoes of everything, pairing words together, and
making patterns of sound and rhyme yourself.  If you start driving your
family berserk, we disclaim all responsibility.	

	"Rhyme" means "a pattern of repeated sounds". Variations in rhyme
are differences in the types of sound, and in the pattern, or position.

Sounds
------
	Words rhyme if the last stressed vowel and the sounds that follow
it match (as in "afar" and "bizarre," "biology" and "ideology," or
"computer" and "commuter").

	"Perfect rhyme" is an exact match between the vowel and the final
consonant, as in "Ars Poetica" by Archibald MacLeish:

      A poem should be palpable and mute
      As a globed fruit

      Dumb
      As old medallions to the thumb

	"Partial rhyme" is "close enough for poetic license":
   
     Then say not Man's imperfect, Heaven in fault;
     Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought....
     (Pope, "An Essay on Man")

	This is also called "near rhyme", "off rhyme" and "hey, that's not
a rhyme, you blew it there".

	"Eye rhyme" is a rhyme that does not exist in sound at all, but
only in sight:
	
	I know it's tough
	To have a cough

	is both a near rhyme and an eye rhyme.

	"Half rhyme" is a match between final consonants, but a miss on
the vowels.

	"Masculine rhyme" is one-syllable rhyme:  "near" and "clear", "loud" and 
"proud".

	"Feminine rhyme" is a rhyme of more than one syllable, both stressed and 
unstressed: "creature" and "feature", "cooking" and "looking".
          
Pattern
-------
   
	"End-rhyme" is the most accustomed pattern: words at the end of
successive lines which rhyme with each other: 
   
     The cow is of the bovine ilk;
     One end is moo, the other milk.
     (Ogden Nash)
	
	There are different patterns of which lines rhyme with which, like
cross-rhyme, sonnet patterns, etc.  We'll get into those later under
"forms".  For right now, the only technical word we'll introduce is
"couplet".  Two lines that rhyme, like Ogden Nash's are called a "rhyming

couplet".

	"Internal rhyme" is the echo of words within a line: "The sails at
noon left off their tune" (Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner")
   	Variations of internal rhyme are: rhyming the first or last word of a 
line with a word inside the next line.

	Got all that?

Exercise:
--------

Step 1 (Easy):

Write a rhyming couplet demonstrating:

Perfect rhyme:

Near rhyme:

Eye rhyme:

Half rhyme:

Masculine rhyme:

Feminine rhyme:

End rhyme:

Internal rhyme:


Guidelines for critique:

1) Is the rhyme used actually the rhyme form described?

Step 2: (More difficult)

Write a poem of at least eight lines combining at least four of the kinds 
of rhyme described in this lesson.

Guidelines for critique:

1) Does the rhyme seem unforced?  Does the word chosen fit in all other 
senses, rather than just rhyming?

2) How does the pattern of sound contribute to the sense and feeling of 
the poem?  Or detract from it?

Step 3: (Challenge)

Find a kind of rhyme I haven't covered here.  Demonstrate it in a poem.

Guidelines for critique:

1) Is it really a new kind of rhyme?  If not, what kind of rhyme is it?

2) Is it used well?


You may of course critique on all other aspects of any poem, but please 
be sure to include the above points.


Write On!
Anitra
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     "Beware of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup."  ABS
	   anitra@speakeasy.org   http://www.speakeasy.org/~anitra
	   thalia@speakeasy.org   http://www.speakeasy.org/~thalia

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