Rhyme

POETIC DEVICES

Rhyme is 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.

Rhyme is one of the first poetic devices that we become familiar with but it can be a tricky poetic device to work with. Matching content to a rhyming pattern takes a lot of skill.

As James Carter says…
A lazy rhyme is a poetry crime!

There are different types of rhyme and many poems, especially sonnets and sestinas, follow strict rhyme schemes with regular patterns.

Types of rhyme include:
Full rhyme – cat/hat/, dog/log.
Half or para-rhyme – cat/hit, lover/river.
Internal rhyme – rhyme that does not occur at the end of the line (the usual place rhyme is found) – Today, as I walked, the large black cat, tipped his hat at me and smiled.

Rhyming patterns can be in couplets where pairs of lines rhyme or can be alternate where every other line rhymes. 

Lots of people believe poetry must rhyme, but an exploration of the work of many modern poets reveals poems that don't rhyme at all, or play with more traditional rhyme schemes. Comic verse is the type of contemporary poetry that is most likely to rhyme

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