Poet tree

This column by Tom Radzienda, an instructor in poetry and culture at Srinakharinwirot University, aims to encourage your interest and develop your skill in creating poetry. Poetry is a combination of visualisation, observation, imagination and creative use of language. Discover your poetic side, too!

December 2, 2003

Rhymer primer
It isn’t necessary to rhyme in a poem, but it can be effective for creating harmony and unity. At its worst, rhyme draws too much attention to itself and dominates the whole poem. In these cases, it’s like wearing too much make-up; it’s too noticeable and distracts from true beauty. Rhyme is the matching of sounds between words. There are many different ways to rhyme as explained below.
Six basic types of rhyme

The types of rhyme include masculine, feminine, alliteration, assonance, near rhyme, sight rhyme and onomatopoeia.

Masculine rhyme is words that share the same vowel and consonant. For example, king, spring and wing have the same vowel and final consonant sounds. This is the most common type of rhyme found in poetry.

Feminine rhyme means words that sound the same in both syllables of words. For example, habit, rabbit and grab it, rhyme on the first syllable /ab/ and on the second syllable /it/. Also consider words such as field, sealed and repealed. Notice how these words have a “double rhyme” on the /e/ sound and the /ld/ sound.

Alliteration is the matching of consonant sounds between words. For example, old, mad, dull and muddy all share the /d/ consonant sound. When these occur close together in a poem, the repeating sound creates unity within the poem. Alliteration is a very common technique that you may also observe in proverbs, idioms and newspaper headlines.

Assonance is the matching of vowel sounds between words. Say the words flow, know and blow aloud to hear and feel the assonance between these words.

Please keep in mind that rhymes do not need to be perfect. In fact, making all rhymes exact might prove to be quite boring. To avoid the problem, poets use near rhyme, which refers to similar vowel or consonant sounds. For example, observe the sounds /b/ and /p/ in blood, public, drop, blind and see how close these two sounds are. Although not exact alliteration, the reader still senses unity between these sounds.

Onomatopoeia is more of a sound than a rhyme. It means sounds that imitate their meaning. For example, a bee’s buzz. Here, the spoken word sounds like the bee itself. Other examples include snap, crack and whack which are often seen in cartoons where the word is the sound itself.

Sight rhymes may look like rhymes to the eye, but once spoken, we realise that we have been fooled and the words are not rhymes to either the ear or the mouth. For example, tough and through.

The purpose of rhyming is not simply to be fancy or follow rules. Rhyme should strengthen the poem and bring attention to the most important words. Remember, rhymes are only heard when spoken aloud. Read the following poem by Percy Shelley aloud and hear his rhymes as you visualise the images and consider the theme.

Shelley: England in 1819

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14 An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king –
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn – mud from a muddy spring
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leechlike to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow
A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field –
An army, which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield;
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay
Religion Christless, Godless – a book sealed;
A Senate – Time’s worst statute unrepealed –
Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day. A
B
A
B
A
B
C
D
C
D
C
C
D
D

This sonnet is 14 lines but follows a different rhyme scheme than that used by Shakespeare. Shelley uses just four different end rhymes. These are primarily masculine, end rhyme, although you might consider rhyme C as a feminine rhyme.

Notice the strong alliteration of /d/ sound in lines 1 and 2. Read it aloud to get the power and unity of these opening lines. Observe his alliteration and near rhyme in lines 6 and 7. Read these lines aloud to sense the unity. Also notice senate and statute as near rhymes and internal rhymes in line 12. Although these follow no pattern, they add to the power and harmony of the poem.

Shelley employs many different rhymes but is careful to not let the rhyme dominate the meaning of the poem. Instead, he uses rhyme to emphasise meaning and power of emotion.
The sound of meaning

The rhyme techniques add a lot of power to the poem. Although the poem can be summarised for its meaning alone, much of the power is lost. Read the following summary and compares its strength to the original poem.

A terrible old king (1) holds onto power even though the citizens do not like him (3). He is insensitive to the people’s needs (4) and uses the resources of his country for his own benefit (5). The people are dying and losing liberty (7, 8) while law, culture and religion are dying and being buried (10-12). From the grave, a ghost may rise to save the society (13, 14).
Tom Radzienda is an instructor in poetry and culture at Srinakharinwirot University. Teachers can contact him to present poetry recitals and poetry writing workshops at their respective universities and schools.

You can send your poem by email. Mark the subject line: Poet Tree and send to this address: learningpost@bangkokpost.co.th

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