THE SOUNDS OF POETRY: RHYME

BEFORE WE BEGIN

Y

ou should first understand basic terms in the structure of a poem.

W

HAT is a LINE? LINE BREAK?

W

HAT is a STANZA

W

HAT is a SYLLABLE?

LINES AND STANZAS

L

ines do not end with punctuation.

S

tanzas are “word groupings” within a poem. They are

similar to paragraphs in prose.

W

hen reading poetry, pause or stop with the punctuation, NOT

with the end of the line!

EXTERNAL RHYME

O

ccurs at the end of the line.

E

xample:

• Nature’s first green is gold• Her hardest hue to hold• Her early leaf’s a flower• But only so an hour….

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost

INTERNAL RHYME:I

nternal Rhyme occurs when words within one line rhyme.

E

xamples:

“The fat cat on the mat

may seem to dream

of

nice mice that suffice . . .” from J.R.R Tolkien’s “Cat”

B

ack into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning”

from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”

SLANT RHYME

N

ear rhyme is not a true rhyme, but the words seem to echo each other

closely. Slant rhyme is often called near rhyme or off rhyme.

E

xamples”:

“Nobody hear him, the dead man,

But still he lay moaning:

I was much further out than you thought

And not waving , but drowning.”

From Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving but Drowning”

ANOTHER EXAMPLE:

“

But if he finds you and you find him.

The rest of the world don't matter;

For the Thousandth Man will sink or swim

With you in any water.”

From “The Thousandth Man” by Rudyard Kipling

LET’S PRACTICE! – FIND THE RHYMING

WORDS AND IDENTIFY THE TYPE

OF RHYME

UNDERLINE THE RHYME

L

abel each rhyme with the following

codes.• I (Internal Rhyme)• E (External Rhyme)• S (Slant Rhyme)

“FOR THE FUTURE” BY WENDELL BERRY

Planting trees early in Spring

we make a place for birds to sing

in time to come. How do we know?

They are singing here now.

There is no other guarantee

that singing will ever be.

MAGGIE AND MILLY AND MOLLY AND MAY BY: E. E. CUMMINGS

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sangso sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded starwhose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thingwhich raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stoneas small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me) it's always ourselves we find in the sea

This is the field where the battle did not happen,where the unknown soldier did not die.This is the field where grass joined hands, where no monument stands,and the only heroic thing is the sky.

Birds fly here without any sound,unfolding their wings across the open.No people killed — or were killed — on this groundhallowed by neglect and an air so tamethat people celebrate it by forgetting its name.

At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border

By: William Stafford